November 9, 2009
Beginning with the recent financial crisis, Green, the former CEO of HSBC and an ordained Anglican priest, launches into a deeply reflective examination of globalization, urbanization, and the market economy. Drawing on a diverse range of sources—from the Koran to The Wealth of Nations
, T.S. Eliot to Thomas Friedman—and placing market vicissitudes into a broad historical context, he contends that globalization has passed the point of no return and that, despite its flaws and failings, the market economy is the best economic arrangement available. Green pivots to consider the importance of corporate and personal responsibility in an increasingly interdependent world. Though the author does describe the Christian foundations for his own metaphysical and ethical views, he spends more time discussing Goethe’s Faust
than any Gospel. Green never calls for any particular reform; rather he makes an inspiring and erudite case for individuals to make moral sense of their lives and strive to make a better world despite the inherent imperfections in human nature and the globalized marketplace.