confidential information in an effort to gain new business. As a result, this information spreads out among investors like wild fire land causes buying and selling sprees. This is best known a recent event in the business world. A CEO was trying to buy his company out from under its corporate partner. The CEO almost froze and gave up on the deal when it came time to hire investment bankers to help structure the deal. He feared that his boss would find out about his plan before he could present it in detail and that he would then be fired as a traitor. Unfortunately, this is becoming more and more prevalent within the business communities of this nation. Investment bankers will sell out their clients for several million dollars in fees (Madsen and Shafritz, 1990). Why did a once, calm and collected gentlemanly approach toward business turn into such a free-for-all? The takeover movement fueled this change by dumping great amounts of money into investment banking. This in turn attracted hordes of people who wanted to get their pockets filled at someone else's expense. With all these huge deals taking place, stock appreciation skyrocketed so much that some quiet trading information on your insider trading could make you extremely rich. Today's Americans have a belief that they have set for themselves as well as the rest of the world, a higher example of individual freedom. Americans became a nation with the conviction that arbitrary government action should not restrict the freedom of individuals to follow their own consciences. Today though, arbitrary treatment of citizens by powerful institutions has taken on a new form. There seems to have been erosion of human values within the hierarchy of business. In the past, the hopes for change in corporate and government behavior have focused mainly on the external pressures such as regulations, competition, litigation, and exposure to public opinion. There was little a...
