Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
Stephan: Here is the truth about the modern financial culture. Think about this: Nearly one quarter of those in this culture believe that corruption and criminal behavior are essential to success.
If you are a non-Caucasian teenager caught stealing a cellphone, or found selling a handful of joints you stand a good chance of going to jail for years. But if you are a Caucasian with a Harvard MBA, and manipulate a deal illegally so you end up with $300 million you're a master of the universe.
This social hypocrisy has produced a trend whose manifestations are destabilizing our society.
A quarter of Wall Street and British financial executives think unethical or illegal conduct is needed to succeed, according to a survey by law firm Labaton Sucharow released Tuesday.
A full 24 percent of senior managers polled by the New York-based firm said they ‘may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct in order to be successful.
