Value(s)

Building a Better World for All

By: Mark Carney

Narrated by: Mark Carney

Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

A bold, urgent argument on the misplacement of value in financial markets and how we can and need to maximize value for the many, not few.

As an economist and former banker, Mark Carney has spent his life in various financial roles, in both the public and private sector. Value(s) is a meditation on his experiences that examines the short-comings and challenges of the market in the past decade, which he argues has led to rampant public distrust and the need for radical change.

Focusing on four major crises - the global financial crisis, the global health crisis, climate change, and the fourth Industrial Revolution - Carney proposes responses to each. His solutions are tangible action plans for leaders, companies, and countries to transform the value of the market back into the value of humanity.

©2021 Mark Carney (P)2021 PublicAffairs

Critic reviews

"A radical book that speaks out accessibly as to how we get everyone involved in solving our problems. And this is what we need: 50 Shades of People for 50 Shades of Green." (Bono, lead singer of U2)

"Mark Carney’s indispensable new book asks how we can go from knowing the price of everything to understanding its true value. From the great financial crisis to climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, this is the essential handbook for 21st-century leaders, policymakers and everyone who wants to build a fair and sustainable world." (Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank)

"Thought-provoking and readable.... As societies struggle to rebuild solidarity in the post-Covid world, it will be an essential guide." (Raghuram Rajan, former chief economic advisor to the Government of India)

Setting a higher bar!

Carney has the courage to continue the debate on how we can create a more just and sustainable society while fighting climate change. He clearly and confidently describes how government needs to take an active role, in partnership with the private sector, in the fourth industrial revolution, by transparently building trust and resisting the “slide into a post truth society.”

Carney, brilliantly reimagines capitalism, sees the importance of both social and environmental impact and how purpose will play a key role tackling the most weighty challenges of our time.

Business leaders will successfully drive results in the future by disrupting old business models and recognizing the importance of measuring their overall impact on society and that is a win for us all.

Totally misses the mark; exceedingly myopic.

There’s an old saying - “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”—and Mark’s documented ESG prose will definitely leads us all to hell—with NO way back; case in point Sri Lanka.

Shallow and Euro-centric

Carney is trapped in a dogmatic devotion to the idea that capitalism can be good. He brings up a metaphor of wine vs distilled spirits to compare what he says are good vs. bad capitalist practices. His conception of what an economy could look like is inextricable from markets.

He imagines a past where there was some kind of fairness and equality of outcome, but that never was true. The systemic violence was simply exported to foreign lands. Though Carney is able to recognize the idea that trade is value extraction more than creation, he can't seem to recognize how inextricable capitalism is from empire, conquest, and the creation of the modern idea of "race" as justification for exploitation.

Skip this book. Get Debt: the First 5000 years instead.

so disappointing

I am not sure who this book is for. Part economic history, part economic theory, part discussion of current events, and lots of moralizing. There are better books on all of Carney's topics and his is a mish mash of too many. His moralizing is unbearable. We should all strive for a just and perfect world, but no mention of China, South America or Africa. Totally unrealistic prescriptions. Painful to finish. Carney is a great central banker. This book is a rambling mess.