BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Care-full Markets: Miracle or Mirage? - Professor Susan Smith FBA\
 , Mistress of Girton College
DTSTART:20101103T170000Z
DTEND:20101103T190000Z
UID:TALK27739@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Nami Morris
DESCRIPTION:The 2010 Tanner Lectures are concerned with the compatibility\
 , or otherwise\, of market-dominated economies with an ethic of care. A ke
 y question is whether economic wrongs can be righted\, and financial ills 
 made good\, not by arguing against markets\, but by making a bid for them.
  Housing markets provide the touchstone for discussion. After all\, the 
 ‘noughties’ financial crisis stemmed from events in the housing econom
 y\; just as the sustainability of recovery depends on the effective manage
 ment of home assets and mortgage debt.\n\n*Lecture 1*\nMoral maze: dealing
 s in debt\n\nIt is easy to see that debts are dangerous\; but can lending 
 and borrowing never be ‘right’? Addressing such questions\, this lectu
 re tells the tale of three markets: housing markets\, which are poorly und
 erstood\; mortgage markets\, which account for the majority of personal de
 bt\; and financial markets which have failed spectacularly to manage the r
 isks this implies. The conventional wisdom is that housing\, mortgage and 
 financial markets are too closely integrated\; that households’ accounts
  are too-precariously entangled with global financial flows. And this may 
 well be true. But where borrowing is concerned\, the balance sheet is comp
 lex: there is virtue as well as value in the bottom line\; even doubtful m
 eans can achieve care-full ends.\n\n*Lecture 2*\nEthical investment? atten
 ding to assets\n\nAsset-based welfare is a popular idea\, but is attending
  to investment returns always a ‘good’ thing – even where the assets
  are as safe as houses? This lecture weighs up four visions for housing’
 s financial future\, arguing that only an arrangement which differs radica
 lly from the status quo can repair the damage associated with ownership-ce
 ntred housing systems. But what would that be? Conventionally\, when effic
 ient markets fail\, politicians create welfare spaces outside them. When s
 ocial policies pall\, an injection of market principles generally perks th
 em up. But there is perhaps another way. Nations of property owners\, inde
 ed markets of mortgagors\, might make way for societies of home stewards 
 – clusters of institutions and individuals for whom calculation is tempe
 red by compassion – if only economics could embrace an ethic of care. 
LOCATION:Robinson College Auditorium
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR