Burgess COMMENTARY
I studied engineering at Cambridge, and a quirk of history made it possible for me also to study economics. After a short time working as an engineer, I trained as a Chartered Accountant with Cooper Brothers and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1965. I learned something about measurement, about systems and about management during my education and early in my career. For all my adult life I have watched decision makers at the top of the system trying to make good decisions about complex issues using a system of metrics that is almost exclusively about GDP growth, financial profits and stock prices. This cannot work ... and essentially it has not worked except for those already endowed with wealth or controlling it. Society has not been important and the environment almost totally ignored. What we need are metrics that are as rigorous about society and the environment as the metrics we have for financial performance. We need to be accounting for the impact on social capital and natural capital as well as financial capital. And we need an ecosystem for society and environment that is as creative and as robust as the ecosystem for finance! When the banking system was facing imminent collapse, around $4 trillion of new money appeared as if by magic and the system survived, We need to pull the same trick to finance what is needed to solve the world's social problems (guided maybe by the SDGs) and to remediate the environment and address the issues associated with climate change. The limiting factor is NOT the amount of financial money, but the availability of meaningful solutions and people to implement them now and into the future. We should be able to create ALL the credit we need in order to mobilize everyone to solve the problems that need to be addressed. The possibilities are huge ... exciting times Peter Burgess http://truevaluemetrics.org
Peter Burgess