JBS Vol 12. Num 1. 2010 - Reforming Capitalism to Better Serve the Poor: The Next Big Ideas

Given capitalism’s near-death experience from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, there has been a ferment of ideas on how to reform the economic and financial systems and to improve their effectiveness in addressing some of the major problems the global society faces today. This article discusses new ideas that have been presented to reform free markets and capitalism to make these less prone to periodic crisis and, importantly transform them into more effective instruments in the war on poverty. These ideas range from Bill Gates’ thoughts on “Creative Capitalism” to Muhammad Yunus’ notion of “Social Business.” The primary focus of this paper is on ideas
discussed by Yunus in his recent book, Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism that Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.