Gifford Lectures (audio) Prof. Kathryn Tanner - Another World?
Jun 1, 2018
Prof. Kathryn Tanner, Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School, explores the intersection of Christianity and capitalism in a thought-provoking discussion. She critiques how finance-dominated markets manipulate present expectations by collapsing future uncertainties. Tanner emphasizes the radical difference Christian eschatology offers, presenting a transformative future founded on grace. She advocates for living in the present with hope, challenging the notion of control through financial derivatives and urging a vision for meaningful reform.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Future Collapsed Into Present Expectation
- Financial capitalism collapses future uncertainty into present expectations via pricing and instruments.
- This reduces the future's capacity to surprise and narrows imaginative possibility.
Prices Are Claims On Anticipated Futures
- Financial asset prices are primarily priced as claims on anticipated future income and volatility.
- Present prices therefore often equal discounted calculations of projected future values rather than current fundamentals.
Past Volatility Used To Price Future Risk
- Markets price future volatility by assuming continuity between past and future variability.
- That assumption makes volatility calculable but masks the genuine unpredictability of future shocks.