Investing in the Future
As an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, Mark Carney was deeply enmeshed in an economic system that, by his own account, suffers from a crisis of values – namely that “market economies” have evolved into “market societies,” where price determines the value of everything.
The economist explores this disconnect in his new book Value(s): Building a Better World for All, which he penned at his Ottawa home during the pandemic last year. The book, which came out March 16, is billed as a “practical manifesto” for achieving a more humane society. It explores how misplaced value is at the centre of the rise in inequality, populism, systemic racism and the health and economic crises now gripping the world and how changing the market’s conception of value from price to sustainability can tackle climate change.
These ideas aren’t new to Carney. As governor of the Bank of England, he warned that global warming would have a “catastrophic impact” on the financial system. Before he stepped down in March 2020 and moved back to Canada, he was named UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also tapped Carney to be his finance adviser ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland in November.
Now back in the private sector as vice-chair of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, Carney is developing a $7.5 billion climate-focused investment fund, where he’ll be able to put his manifesto into action. —Jason Kirby