The worlds of finance and business should be helpers, not blank-faced oracles 
When the weatherman tells us that tomorrow it will rain or it will snow, he also tells us we should bring an umbrella, or we should wrap up warm.
Have you noticed, though, how economic experts and business leaders are happy to tell us that they predict a recession will occur, but instead of helping to reduce the negative impact of these economic cycles and give advice to the less fortunate, they ready themselves to short the market and gain yet more wealth by betting against the economy and specific stocks.
I am not claiming that economic experts and business leaders can of their own will reverse a recession or prevent economic cycles, but I have noticed that out of all societal actors, big business and particularly finance seem to want to take responsibility only for their own well-being, not that of others. The financial misconduct, financial bubbles and Ponzi schemes knowingly incited by elements of the financial world, for simple gain, have regularly had devastating effects on the world, and particularly on the least fortunate. It is time for the financial and business world to assume the responsibility that should befall them, in line with their resources, with regards to the rest of society and, indeed, the well-being of our planet.
We are not fish to hook with bait and we are not nonentities to extort or to profit from; we are all members of the same society and should all be working toward the well-being of society and humanity, not just our own short-term benefit. We do not need more philosopher kings announcing what will befall the common people next. The planet and the common people need your help, too.
Out of all societal actors, big business and particularly finance seem to want to take responsibility only for their own well-being, not that of others.
If anything, business leaders and the world of finance and its wealth should be our leading role models in matters of helping us protect the environment as well as mitigate climate change, helping to soothe and resolve disputes, and ensuring that wealth is distributed more equally throughout our planet. We do not need more jargon or economic soothsaying. What we need is for you to apply your education, your smarts and your resources to do good, to ensure the well-being of all, especially the least fortunate.
There is little good in predicting a recession if you are not already hard at work ensuring that its effects on ordinary people will be as slight as possible. The time for the gambling financiers of Wall Street is over; it is time for a world of business and finance that takes responsibility for society and the planet as a whole, in line with its profits and resources. Shorting the market should be made illegal — as it is in certain parts of the world — because it is plain and simple gambling with somebody else’s welfare. We need a new way of relating to each other in this global economic order. Instead of making money off someone else’s loss, let us make sure we spread the benefit to all.
• Hassan bin Youssef Yassin worked closely with Saudi Arabia’s petroleum ministers, Abdullah Tariki and Ahmed Zaki Yamani, from 1959-1967. He led the Saudi Information Office in Washington from 1972-1981 and served with the Arab League’s observer delegation to the UN from 1981-1983.
