Introduction:

The title of this essay directly refers to an inspiring book called "Decent Capitalism" published in 2011 by Dullien, Herr and Kellerman. The book's objective is to convince readers around the world that there exists an alternative economic model to the one currently in place, which is be better suited to advance simultaneously the goals of prosperity, social justice and environmental sustainability. In essence, decent capitalism requires a move away from "naïve market radicalism" (p. 4) and a better balance between markets, the government and society.

As a first step, the book proposes to re-regulate finance so that it once again becomes a service provider for the rest of the economy, particularly enterprises which create jobs. While the role of finance is in principle to mobilise savings and allocate them to enterprises which generate employment, innovation and growth, the authors are not alone in observing that finance has recently become some sort of a "monster", interested mainly in its own profits. Dullien, Herr and Kellerman emphasize that in the future a stronger regulatory framework should provide incentives for finance to support the transition towards "green" jobs – or else humanity will face a catastrophe.