How a Lapse of Ethics Led to the Financial Crisis

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 9, 2009 at 5:48 AM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

What kind of business practices led to the current financial crisis and recession? We'll talk with a former stockbroker who was convicted of fraud and now speaks out about the lack of ethics in the b

Alan Ray : It was Gordon Gekko who made the case in the Olive Stone movie "Wall Street. His speech was short and a classic of the cinema. His bottom line was the bottom line. "Greed," he said, "is good."

Well it didn't last for Gordon Gekko, and it didn't last for us. In the years when America had its first MBA president, the nation went through two recessions. We're still in the second and even Warren Buffett said today that the American economy has fallen off a cliff. How did we get here?

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Guest

Patrick Kuhse , San Diego-based writer and consultant of business ethics, and a fellow at the Poe Center for Business Ethics at the University of Florida.