We had our event last night to launch Eric Longeran's new book Money. In a nutshell...

Eric said: Financial markets do us a hell of a lot of good, and we should be as clear as we can be about the ways it contributes to the common good. Not least since then we will see that the individuals who operate in them are as flawed as any other human being, particularly when it comes to the excesses of speculation.

Philip Goodchild said: Money is the new religion, and like the old religion, it is good and bad. (What's also interesting is that you don't have to believe in it, you just have to practice it, as we all do, and they all did.) That said, money has this tendency to draw all value towards itself, and suck the value out of other measures.

Philip Coggan said: well, you can read his thoughts - roughly, progress in financial markets has always gone hand in hand with progress in human civilisation. Money is the root of a lot of good, and when things go wrong, as they have, we pick ourselves up and learn from our mistakes.

Which is no doubt true - though I just get nervous at the 'best of all possible worlds' implications of those thoughts, and the complacency that then slips in. Where is the capacity for serious self-critique? That's what I like about Eric's book: he's not afraid to praise financial markets, but he's also not afraid to critique human nature.

No self-critique, no progress too, you know.