I made it into the media twice during the weekend. Here I am in Alan Kohler’s column from the Business Section of The Oz: Central banks risk becoming economic wreckers. You can find my quote if you’d like to look, but Alan’s point is the one that matters:

After Thursday’s stunning employment figures for October, the chances of another rate cut in December have disappeared. Or at least they should have.

That there remains the chance of a further rate cut in Australia, despite clear evidence that the economy doesn’t need it, is a reflection of the modern paradox and problem of central banking: low and falling inflation.

Central banks everywhere have switched from fighting inflation to ardently desiring it. In the process, they are in danger of becoming economic wreckers.

Central bankers are no better than the theory they apply, and at heart they are all Keynesians. I met Janet Yellen years ago at some OECD meeting I was attending on behalf of Australian employers, and it was an experience I have not forgotten, even though she was years from becoming the Chairperson of the Fed. Her rabid Keynesian views astonished me since by then it was clear enough that no approach to economics was less enlightening than starting from the premises found in just about every introductory text. That Keynesian thought has poured into central banking practice was inevitable. She didn’t cause it, but is a symptom of it. Our own central bank is the most resistant to it, but no bank can withstand the ignorant pressures to lower rates to stimulate growth. That such reductions in rates have never worked ever is just so much data as far as economic practice is concerned.

I also showed up on the ABC’s Sunday Extra where I was in a debate with Denis Kilroy over an intellectual entity described as “conscious capitalism”. It would not be easy for me to say in respect of our economic system that we are on the same side of the fence. Nevertheless, he is in favour of a modified capitalist system, one in which business decisions are guided at every turn by our conscious wish to serve the whole of humanity. From their website:

Conscious Capitalism differs from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by virtue of its origins from within the company as an expression of an overall perspective on how to conceive and build a business, rather than as a response to external notions of what counts as “socially responsible” or external pressure. Conscious Capitalists are unapologetic advocates for free markets, entrepreneurship, competition, freedom to trade, property rights, and the rule of law. They recognise that these are essential elements of a healthy, functioning economy, as are trust, compassion, collaboration, and value-creation. Conscious Capitalism is the system-level effect of a substantial number of companies practicing the four tenets of a Conscious Business as defined below.

So far so good. I am with them on all that. And, in fact, I would say that for the most part, capitalist enterprises are ethical organisations. Aside from personal values, a market system automatically punishes dishonest behaviours, although there is no doubt there is plenty of dishonesty about. But can any economic system embrace all of this:

1. HIGHER PURPOSE

Conscious Businesses adopt a higher purpose that transcends profit maximisation. A compelling sense of purpose can create an extraordinary degree of engagement for stakeholders and catalyse tremendous organisational energy.

2. STAKEHOLDER ORIENTATION

Conscious businesses are managed for the simultaneous benefit of all of their interdependent stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, suppliers, the environment and the larger community in which the business participates. By creating value for each stakeholder in various and often differing ways the whole system advances.

3. CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP

Conscious Leaders adopt a holistic worldview that moves beyond the limitations of traditional machine metaphors for business. Conscious Leaders see that profit is one of the important outcomes of the business, but not the sole purpose. Most importantly, they reject a zero-sum, trade-off oriented view of business and look for creative synergistic win-win approaches that offer multiple kinds of value simultaneously to all stakeholders.

4. CONSCIOUS CULTURE

The culture is a conscious business is captured in the acronym TACTILE: Trust, Authenticity, Caring, Transparency, Integrity, Learning and Empowerment. The culture of a conscious business can be felt immediately upon walking in its doors.

I met John Mackie, who started this movement in the US, at Freedomfest so he and his movement are definitely considered within the tent. I won’t even say I am cynical and that it is hopelessly naive. What I do think is that it is unnecessary since the owners of our businesses need a sympathetic understanding from within the community of both their role and the pressures entrepreneurs are under. What they do not need in my view is this kind of approach which seems to side with those who are anti-capitalist and who incessantly rattle on about the immorality of business. If there is immorality about, it is embedded within the anti-capitalist mentality that is the home territory of the left.