Ethical problems of production have been assessed in a
great number of industries, ranging from agriculture to textile manufacturing in developing countries to pharmaceuticals. Today only a few important industries have escaped such scrutiny. The most important of these is the production of money. Money is omnipresent in modern life, yet the production of money does not seem to warrant any moral assessment.
To be sure, central bank representatives are lecturing the
public on the importance of business ethics; but their concerns do not seem to apply to themselves.1 Similarly, the subject of business ethics is in a boom phase on campuses; but it is applied mainly to industrial corporations. And the churches
and other religious institutions pronounce on many matters of politics; but monetary phenomena, such as paper money,