KI EL W ORKING P APER - Capitalism Recoupled

5 markets and the use of financial metrics to measure the success of business and the economy – turbocharged access to capital, the globalization process and the accompanying technological advances. [...] Assuming symmetric information (so that neither side of the market has an informational advantage) and clearing markets, the buyers and sellers in each market face the same prices and thus the sum of the customer surplus and the supplier surplus cover the entire surplus available through the activities of the firm, its customers and its suppliers. [...] To understand the nature of the difficulty, it is useful to summarize how the primacy of the financial is currently reflected in the decision-making process of a business. [...] The role of government is to set the objectives and the boundaries of the business operating environment, not to unilaterally determine the means whereby the objectives are to be reached. [...] The pursuit of profit is a valid and necessary objective in a market economy – but it must be earned as a consequence of delivering outcomes which are consistent with the wellbeing of the community and the sustainability of the planet.