So, are corporate executives or global investors to blame?
If politicians have become the victims of the vicious circle caused by the free movement of capital and corporations, surely this must be the fault of investors or corporate executives? But this is not so. Because corporate executives and investment managers are forced to seek out the most profitable investments and opportunities and this often means sacrificing social and environmental interests in order to maximize profitable returns. With the shares of major corporations quoted on global stock markets, any corporate executive who fails to maximize profits will lose out to less scrupulous competitors. As the executives themselves say, “if we don’t do it, our competitors will”. The same goes for global investors who are rated by the returns they obtain for their clients. So investors and corporate executives are generally no less aware of global problems than the rest of society. But they, like our politicians, are trapped in the same vicious circle of destructive competition and they
