Most of us are aware of the dramatic daily drops in the stock market, which have eroded more than eight trillion dollars of the value of US and foreign corporations.  The general belief has been that this is a problem brought about by greed and corruption in financial firms, and predominantly financial firms that make their billions through “deals” involving “financial papers” – now mostly in electronic form.  This has resulted in a spiral of increasing values and volumes of deals at higher and higher transaction speeds, across global markets – while at the same time, our Government has loosened regulations and regulatory oversight instead of pursuing the more prudent path of increasing scrutiny of the mushrooming deal-making euphoria that has led up to this unprecedented disaster.

So, do we mean to say that this crisis is a Wall Street problem that has been allowed to balloon to the current burst?

Do we also mean that we should let the Government and Wall Street work it out with our, Taxpayer, dollar serving as the fodder for this giant gone berserk?

Or, do we mean that this problem does not affect us, so long as we keep our jobs or other sources of income, even if the value of our investments is eroded temporarily (we hope)?

The graduate class on Legal and Ethical Perspectives in Business, at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, heard my views on this grave matter last Tuesday evening.  Listen to audio excerpts on integrity from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (3:09): Make Integrity a Habit

For those of you who are disturbed by the lucrative payoffs in the tens of millions of dollars to the CEOs of highflying and now bankrupt Wall Street firms, will relate to this excerpt from my lecture on purposeful action for quality improvement (4:09): Unjust Rewards: Compensation for Failure

We would like to hear from you on this most important matter that will affect the world for generations…

With best wishes,

Prem Chopra