Andy Flannagan on the need for ethics in the world of finance

Andy Flannagan

Last night I went to see David Hare's play "The power of Yes" at the National Theatre. It is an incredible play with a stellar cast, but what is truly jaw-dropping about it is its ambition. I know many folks involved in theatre whose greatest desire is for performances to entertain, move and educate in equal measure. But surely there has never been a play that has so audaciously attempted to take its audience from a place of mere tabloid understanding of the world economic system to the details of securitised credit derivatives and beyond in just 98 minutes!

The amazing thing was that it managed it. I brought a friend to whom the world of "dicing and slicing" was all new, and on the way home we had an informed conversation about finance that would simply not have been possible 3 hours earlier.

The play follows David Hare the playwright as he interviews the major players to get to the bottom of how the crisis could have occurred. Most of time we were left to scribble our own abhorrence on our mental notepads as revelation after revelation played out mostly without a hint of regret. There is however impressive nuance and understanding in the search for scapegoats, (except in the case of Fred Goodwin, the ex-chair of RBS.)
There is great support for CSM's campaign to see retail and casino banking separated in the content of the play. In fact if I had been standing at the exit with a clipboard asking people to sign up, I can't see how they wouldn't have, given the evidence they were presented with.

The most profound parts of the play are when the very nature of the banking industry is called into question. The "take home moment" occurs when David Hare's "lecturer" reminds him that the word credit comes from the root credo - to believe. Credit is not just a financial transaction. Credit is only truly credit and only serves the common good, when it is built on trust. The relationship between lender and borrower is all important. Without that relationship, trust and credo, we are left merely with numbers on a balance sheet. And you don't need me to explain how the gradual separation of lender and borrower caused the greatest economic crisis of all time.

So it was timely today when I received a piece of work being done on the influence of Christians on the formation of friendly societies, building societies, mutuals, and co-operatives. These were and are organisations predicated on the true meaning of credit. It was inspiring to read how these organisations were set up to help working people buy houses, secure sick pay, and receive pensions. There was a sense of the common good. How different things are now. But the pendulum is swinging. We must take up the challenge of explaining to a new generation that "it wasn't always like this" - that money wasn't always a private thing, separate from character and community, and that a shared life on this planet involves sharing the wonderful resources it provides.

David Hare's play leaves one in no doubt that the playground of high finance has been an ethics-free zone, where pursuit of profit became the only driving force rather than any sense of the common good. Dissenting voices were scorned and condemned as dinosaurs from a bygone age. I was left thinking that there is in fact an incredible power in the word "yes", and in the momentum of "progress". It was impossible for anyone to swim against the prevailing tide. It is a stark reminder that at times we are called to the less popular place. The place where we must say, "No."