The revolution in accounting and the emergence of ethical markets

You may want to read Hazel Henderson’s reaction to the financial meltdown.

Her stress on ethical markets is in tune with our own analysis of capitalist formats being subsumed through peer to peer-based ‘partner’ logics.

Of interest is the paragraph in which she refers to deep changes that have taken place in statistical and accounting methnods, and that pave the way for post-neoliberal approaches to the economy.

Hazel Henderson:

Three decades of socially responsible investing which screens out the worst of these excesses has proved successful in providing reliable returns (www.socialfunds.org, www.socialinvest.org). Research analysts, including Innovest, KLD, Calvert, Trucost and many others, report on companies’ social, environmental and ethical governance performance (all at www.ethicalmarkets.com). Sustainability metrics beyond money-based GNP/GDP and conventional economics use multi-disciplinary, systems approaches to overall quality of life, happiness and ecological footprints (e.g., www.calvert-henderson.com). Triple bottom line accounting, pioneered by the Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative is used by over 600 global companies to report their social, environmental and governance performance as well as profitability. All these new statistical reforms constitute the greatest revolution in accounting since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping in the Renaissance. All these reforms of markets, economics and accounting accelerated after Enron and are now growing even more rapidly in response to Wall Street’s downfall, leaving the Chicago Boys in the dust. Meanwhile, local “green” economies are flourishing, creating local currencies, alternative liquidity networks, online community credit facilities and barter systems, reported by the Schumacher Society (www.smallisbeautiful.com).”

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