The Secret Life of the CEO: Is the economy just built to flip?

By: Jim CollinsWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:36 AM

Here's the truth: The problem isn't the market's rise or fall. The problem is people who react to events, rather than seek to create something great.

Where will all of this stand a year from now?
People will be going to jail. Individual criminal liability will be found. Just as important, there will be a rewriting of the rules. Our inquiries and those of others will continue, and the new rules will emerge as a function of individual settlements. Ultimately, we'll see a new structure within which analysts have to operate and new rules about IPO issuances.

Do the people who run Wall Street realize now that they've been doing something wrong?
I'm not sure. I do believe there is a renewed attention to the underlying ethical problems posed by the conflicts of interest on Wall Street. But I don't know whether there is any sense of remorse for wrongdoing.
by Keith H. Hammonds