The Margin Call Movie - Essay Example

Margin Call Brief of the parties involved, what happened, and why it was ethically questionable The parties involved deeply in this movie are the junior employees and senior executive officials of the investment bank. They are in a crisis meeting trying to manage the risk of the firm going down through profit loss and losing its traders and even ruining its future reputation. Even though at the beginning of the meeting some of the senior executives (Rogers, Robertson, Tuld and Cohen) make the rest believe that the issue is new, it eventually comes to be known as the movie proceeds that they knew of the crisis beforehand but did nothing to avert it.

This move is one of the ethically questionable issues evident in the movie. The decision by Tuld to sell off their assets (the toxic ones) before the opening of the market and before the traders and customers’ suspect of the downfall and worthlessness of company and their assets is one of the biggest and most pronounced unethical and questionable decisions by the company. Identify the moral philosophy upon which the parties seem to have relied to justify their actions. Define that philosophy and explain how it led them to act as they did.

The moral philosophy in this case is egoism where the egoistic person only selects choices and solutions which are favoring his or her self-interest or that satisfy their egos. The decisions being suggested by some of the senior executives and also being supported by the others is that of sacrificing their own traders who are their loyal customers and deceiving them in order to save the company from losses that it is facing and will eventually face once word gets out about the reduction of mortgage-backed securities by over 25%.

The reasoning behind their egoistic philosophical decision is that the market faces ups and downs but it still remains and therefore this is a normal situation for an investment bank and once the crisis passes, then they will be on their way to making profits and no one will find out about what happened unless someone leaks word out. If this happens, then they are prepared to offer Robertson as a sacrificial lamb through her resigning. Select two alternative moral philosophies that might have led the parties to a different result and, for each one, include a definition of that alternative philosophy and an analysis of how the actors would have acted had they utilized that moral philosophy.

Also discuss the likely outcome of acting in accordance with each such alternative philosophy. Deontological philosophy and Utilitarianism are the alternative philosophies that the team of junior and senior employees should have exercised. Deontological philosophy involves majorly focusing on the rights and intentions of the individuals rather than the consequences. If the crisis management team had focused on the rights of their traders instead of focusing on themselves, then they would have probably brainstormed and come up with a less selfish way of letting the traders know of their incoming financial downfall, offer them substantial remedies and promise them a good future once the economy booms again.

Utilitarianism is the provision of the greatest benefits to the greatest number of people. In this regard, the team would have known that the traders and their loyal customers are the majority in number and hence will suffer even more than the employees of the company and hence should have tailored their solutions or risk and crisis management strategies focusing on their traders. This act of utilitarianism would have ensured that they would still retain their customers once the market improves and even not tarnish the name of the company more than their egoistic solution will tarnish.

Work Cited The Margin Call. Dir. J. C. Chandor. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci. Blu-ray, 2011. Film.