The End of Ethics and A Way Back

Even now, in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Wall Street bankers, fund managers, and corporate leaders, in an effort to appease unrealistic shareholder expectations while feeding their own corrosive greed, are doing all in their power to avoid reform. Untroubled by the economic calamities they helped engender in the past, and unfazed by toothless reform efforts such as Dodd-Frank, too-big-to-fail banks are bigger and more unaccountable than ever. Everything from Ponzi schemes to massive accounting fraud, interest rate rigging to money laundering on an epic scale continue to chip away at the foundations of the global economy. As the excesses of private greed continue to undermine the public good on a level never before witnessed, one can only wonder if Adam Smith's virtuous circle has, at last, gone off the rails, and, if so, what can be done to set it right once again and restore the ethical compass of a once great economic system. In The End of Ethics and a Way Back, Theodore Malloch, author of the international bestseller Doing Virtuous Business, and attorney and Yale University postdoctoral fellow, Jordan Mamorsky, make an impassioned call for an end to corrupt and irresponsible capitalism and the restoration of a more virtuous, ethics-based version. More importantly, they offer cogent, well-reasoned prescriptions for how to achieve that end. In Part One, the authors explore some of the most outrageous recent examples of financial vice, including the LIBOR scandal, the demise of Lehman Brothers, ratings agency corruption, John Corzine's MF Global, Tyco, and Bernie Madoff's two-decade Ponzi scheme, among others. In a series of compelling case studies, Malloch and Mamorsky chronicle how those organizations and their leaders lost their way and the havoc their reckless, often criminal activities wreaked globally. In Part Two, the authors concentrate on what can be done to pull us back from the brink of total economic chaos. They propound well-reasoned solutions to problems deeply embedded in global markets and corporate cultures, including: Restructure the SEC and staff it with better qualified, better compensated investigators Institute new rules of the financial game, beginning with reinstitution of Glass-Steagall Take the exotic derivatives market in hand-including the aggressive regulation of CDSs Devise aggressive new accounting rules to curtail accounting gimmickry and shadow banking leading to off-balance sheet risk Reign in the commodities markets with better and more frequent regulatory audits and smarter corporate governance Implement stronger fiduciary standards and enhanced transparency for retail investors Offering a penetrating, at times controversial analysis of the demise of virtuous capitalism, and a road map for achieving a return to ethics, virtue, and sustainable economic growth-The End of Ethics and a Way Back is a must-read for lawmakers, financial regulators, financial advisors and auditors, journalists and media commentators, and all thoughtful observers of current affairs.