Ethics, Probity, and the Changing Governance of Wall Street: Cure or Remission?

This commentary provides a critical assessment of the scandals that have besmirched corporate America. It examines whether the increase in corporate malfeasance and misfeasance is the result of morally flawed individual executives, a flawed system of organizational incentives, or systemic failure. It demonstrates how the diverse legal, commercial, and political strategies deployed in corporate governance affect the creation and calibration of public policy. It asks whether the changing governance of Wall Street represents fundamental change or merely the illusion of it. Do the advances proclaimed by regulatory authorities represent a cure for the ethical lapses or merely provide remission?