Survey: Wall Street corruption and criminality 'ne

Survey: Wall Street corruption and criminality 'necessary' for success

WALL STREET | JULY 10, 2012 | BY: GLENN WRIGHT

In what may be the last nail in the coffin of trust by most Americans in the integrity of the Wall Street way of doing business, a new survey reveals shocking levels of indifference to, and even enthusiasm for, criminal behavior amongst "500 senior executives" of Wall Street and UK financial industry firms.

The survey, conducted by the law firm of Labaton-Sucharow, known for filing lawsuits on behalf of investors against "corporate offenders", concludes that, nearly four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, "[m]isconduct is still widespread in the financial services industry."

Specifically:

• "26% of respondents indicated that they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace."
• "Nearly one-fourth of respondents believed that financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct in order to be successful."
• "An alarming number of financial services professionals, 16% of respondents, would commit a crime–insider trading—if they could get away with it."
• "Nearly one-third of all financial services professionals reported feeling pressured by
bonus or compensation plans to violate the law or engage in unethical conduct. Nearly
one-quarter of the respondents felt similar pressure from other sources."
• "While enforcement actions are on the rise and new reforms have strengthened financial
regulators and law enforcement authorities, only one in four financial services professionals believe these watchdogs are effective."

In light of increasing scandals on Wall Street, whose firms seem to have learned little or nothing of self-regulation or self-restraint after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, the new survey points to the need for the one thing Republicans in Congress, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, claim the USA cannot afford—increased government regulation.

However, as one indicator after another of Wall Street's system being substantially rotten at its core is reported, Wall Street's leaders have an old problem, the same problem that faced the investment industry after the 1929 crash and the Great Depression. For decades after that catastrophe, few Americans trusted Wall Street to be honest players in a game that seemed rigged to reward the super-wealthy few at the considerable expense of the regular investors.

This problem also goes to a greater question of the justice or lack of it in the economic and political system. Why should voters, for example, trust politicians, who are largely beholden to a few big, wealthy contributors, or Wall Street firms?

http://www.examiner.com/article/survey-wall-s...or-success

(posted by SevenTenEleven)