An Ethical Analysis of Automation, Risk, and the Financial Crises of 2008

摘要

The unprecedented financial market volatility of 2008 has profound implications. Although there is plenty of "blame" to be shared, some key elements of the instability are relatively straightforward to identify. The authors contend that a fundamental, underlying cause is the cavalier approach taken to applied risk management, an approach that was only possible because of the use (and some would say abuse) of automation. This article examines ethical issues associated with general behaviors leading to the market volatility of 2008. It then isolates some related ethical factors that can be singularly attributed to automation. While the effects of market automation can't be realistically blamed for the overall market situation, automation certainly contributed to and still contributes to market uncertainty. Some of this uncertainty is due not merely to automation but to decisions made as risk management was automated. These findings are reinforced by research work employing latent semantic analysis (LSA).