Lehman Used ‘Alter Ego’ to Transfer Risks - NYTimes.com

"Greenspan is nothing if not a representative leader of his time. We live in a culture where accountability and responsibility are forgotten values. When “mistakes are made” they are always made by someone else."

It is difficult to fathom the level of hubris that causes people to blatantly disregard regulations and laws in the pursuit of money and power. Well--perhaps its not--since it permeates our culture. Justification for the 'excesses of privilege' are rationalized ad nauseam while the foundations of Wall Street crumble. The only way a free market can work in a productive, sustainable and fair manner is if all participants embrace the concept of honesty, responsibility and accountability. Unfortunately, evidence is beginning to mount with increasing frequency and credibility that many of the institutions of finance that are supposed to fuel the entrepreneurial nature of the middle class have, instead, opted to enrich themselves and a very small but powerful group of sycophants by creating investment vehicles that are self-serving and ostensibly exploitative to the middle class. In order to keep the roulette table spinning certain liberties have had to be taken with regard to the truth, responsibility, transparency and accountability. This is not isolated to a few Bernie Madoffs. The discomforting thing is that this contagion has spread to the upper echelons of power in both Washington and Wall Street. Until some semblance of personal virtue becomes a defining characteristic of the financial ethos, the foundations of capitalism will continue to deteriorate until what we now refer to as Wall Street will crumble like a derelict casino.
The evidence stacks up as the bubble inflates.

Lehman Used ‘Alter Ego’ to Transfer Risks - NYTimes.com

No One is to Blame for Anything.