Kryzys finansowy lat 2008–2009. Próba specyfikacji problematyki moralnej

15 months after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers there is time to specify moral problems connected with the financial crisis 2008–2009. The basis for this was daily monitoring of business pages in the world press. 25 years of my experience in ethics and especially business ethics made it possible to apply ethics instruments to analysis of the crisis. First a controversy about normative function of ethics between relativist and orthodox cognitivism was presented. Two kind of problems have been distinguished: (1) dilemmas, or problems, which do not have one solution, (2) problematic situations, in which moral norms were violated. The discussed problems comprise: moral limitation in risk creation, corporate problems of banks, dilemmas of state support. The conclusion, advocated in many papers, claims that without the moral self regulation based on ethical rules no legal regulations will prevent new crises.