The Good, the Bad and the Greedy

'Timely, thoughtful and witty' - Merryn Somerset Webb From the Industrial Revolution to the internet, capitalism has been a great engine of human progress. But now it stands accused of allowing the greedy few to run riot over the rest of society, exploiting workers and suppliers and recklessly damaging the planet in pursuit of profit. Where did these accusations come from - and are they true? In this lively critique, Spectator business editor Martin Vander Weyer argues that capitalism has indeed lost its moral compass, has lost public trust and is in urgent need of repair. But this is no far-left analysis seeking to champion a thinly veiled Marxist platform. Written from the point of view of a deep admirer of entrepreneurship and private-sector investment as a proven path to innovation and prosperity, The Good, the Bad and the Greedy argues that businesses always operate in a social context and that a 'good' business in a moral sense can also, in a perfect world, be a business that richly rewards its creators and backers. From the writer whom Boris Johnson called 'the most oracular and entertaining business commentator' in London, this thoughtful critique of 21st-century capitalism formulates core principles that separate the good from the bad and the greedy and warns that the system must be reformed and faith in it restored - before the next generation commit the ultimate act of self-harm by rejecting capitalism in favour of something worse.

Martin Vander Weyer is business editor and columnist of The Spectator and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph. He has been writing about business, entrepreneurship and social change throughout the national press since 1992, after a career in international banking. His previous books include Falling Eagle: The Decline of Barclays Bank (2000); Closing Balances: Business Obituaries from the Daily Telegraph (2006); Fortune's Spear (2011), the biography of 1920s fraudster Gerard Lee Bevan; and Any Other Business: Life In and Out of the City (2014), a semi-autobiographical collection of his journalism. He lives in London.