Featured Book Charting the Course By Dr. Bruce Howard   More More Personal Finance More Business

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Can the Market Economy be Redeemed?

The B&B Media Group

CBNMoney.com – Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX—The influence of economic markets is impossible to escape.  It’s there every morning when we turn on a light switch, run water to brush our teeth, or pour a bowl of cereal.  These goods and services we take for granted are produced by the acts of literally thousands of economic agents (people doing a job) making millions of little decisions that collectively add up to the stuff of our lives. 

Markets have the power to bring us the things we want—and that power often leads to destruction.  Why is it that the same economic forces that produce good things for us like penicillin and housing are just as effective at bringing us things like pornography and heroin?  How can the same systems of production generate such a wide array of good and bad outcomes? 

“Markets are morally neutral.  But people are not,” says Dr. Bruce Howard, professor of economics and finance at Wheaton College.  “Markets recognize no moral difference between good and evil.  Markets don’t inherently recognize any values other than those brought by men and women to the marketplace each and every day.  At the core of the market system is a concept of value that says things are worth what I, the individual, say they are worth.  While markets efficiently and effectively produce goods and services that increase society’s standard of living, we should not uncritically embrace a system that has as its most foundational principle a concept of value that is so intensely humanistic, egocentric, and relativistic.” 

In his new book, Charting the Course, Howard grapples with the dilemma of reconciling fixed, transcendent moral values with an economic system based on relative value.  Howard insists there is a way to move forward, that we can influence the economy in a way that will bring positive change to the world.  “While it is true that markets have no values, they are wonderful mirrors for reflecting the values that people bring to the marketplace each and every day,” he states.  “If people bring the right values, then markets will produce the right outcomes.  People from all walks of life have a shared vision for the economic world in which they want to live.  We do know what is right.  The task before us is to take what we know and apply these practical principles in daily economic life.”

Charting the Course delivers a set of values that will enable any reader to navigate the choppy, morally murky waters of commerce with clarity and confidence.  As he communicates truths about the nature of markets and the people who shape them, Howard masterfully weaves in memorable, entertaining stories that illustrate how those truths play out in real life.  The result is a book that is both informative and inviting.

Charting the Course will speak to anyone who is concerned about morality in the marketplace and who wants to make a positive difference in economic life.  Many of us wonder how we can take personal responsibility to live out our moral values in the economic world.  As Howard educates his readers about the nature of market economics, he provides real, actionable examples of the positive results that occur when we bring positive values to the marketplace.  This book also speaks to leaders who desire a better understanding of their specific responsibilities and opportunities for providing moral and ethical direction to the organizations they lead.

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