This interim report considers aspects of current company structure, its strengths and weaknesses, and looks at what companies are for and their responsibilities to those who rely on them for their well-being. It considers various approaches to meet particular concerns and explains why these do not address some of the underlying issues. It then outlines an alternative model, the Relational Company, its founding principles and characteristics. Finally, it describes a proposal for a charter which could be adopted by companies.the Relational Company, its founding principles and characteristics. Finally, it describes a proposal for a charter which could be adopted by companies.

Mortgage-backed securities have played a major role in the financial crisis and aren’t very popular as a result. This column documents macroeconomic benefits of these instruments, showing that economies with more developed markets for securitised mortgage debt share more consumption risk with other economies. 

http://www.thinkingfaith.org/ Reported here by: SPMG, 7 August 2009 

Since the onset of the financial crisis, there has been an increase in the number of people in London engaging in voluntary work – work that can be a way of practising and expressing austerity . Andrea Kelly, Coordinator of London Jesuit Volunteers, describes the often counter-cultural practice of volunteering.

In numerous poor or stagnating countries, politicians are ineffective and corrupt, public goods are under-provided and public policies confer rents to privileged élites, law enforcement is inadequate, and moral hazard is widespread inside public and private organisations. There is not just one institutional failure. Typically, the countries or regions that fail in one dimension also fail in many other aspects of collective behaviour.

One of the main challenges of current research in economic growth and development is identifying the mechanism through which distant political and economic history shapes the functioning of current institutions. The author, a professor of economics at Bocconi University, claims that an important channel for this shaping is individuals’ morality (defined as individual values and convictions about the scope of application of norms of good conduct). It is an important factor in economic outcomes.

What do we need to do in order to live a good life, and why should we want to do this? John Moffatt SJ looks at different approaches to developing an ethical framework, and examines the relationship of religion to various ethical traditions.

This column introduces timelines, produced by the New York Fed, that organise and illustrate policymakers’ responses to the global financial crisis. Over the past two years, and particularly since the intensification of the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, new information has been released at an astonishing pace. Between the breaking developments in the markets and the vast array of policy initiatives across countries, it has become increasingly challenging to keep track of the complex and evolving response to the crisis.

Aid critics have recently been blaming aid as the source of Africa’s poverty. This column explains how Africa has long been struggling with rural poverty, tropical diseases, illiteracy, and lack of infrastructure and that the right solution is to help address these critical needs through transparent and targeted public and private investments. This includes both more aid and more market financing. It refers to D. Moyo and her recent book “Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa” see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dambisa-moyo/aid-ironies-a-response-to_b_207772.html 

There is a risk that empirically dubious but emotionally attractive interpretations of the financial crisis, which condemn markets and call for more statism, could gain ground.

Easter Monday 2009 marked the 28th anniversary of the martyrdom of Monseñor Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, who once said, ‘as a Christian, I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me I will rise again in the people of El Salvador.’ Rodolfo Cardenal SJ writes about the legacy of Archbishop Romero – very much alive in the Church today.