Levitt, whats the significance of the Enron scandal and collapse for the markets as a whole?
Is this just a group of bad guys who broke the law maybe in one company? Or is this symptomatic of something larger? I think the Enron scandal is symptomatic of something much broader than Enron. I think it’s symptomatic of a breakdown of the ethical values of business over a period of perhaps 20 years, a gradual erosion of business ethics that brought us to an Enron, but might very well bring us to a whole host of Enrons as we move down the road. How do you account for that? Is that the go-go 1990s? Or Wall Street pressure? … Part of it, I believe, is a function of a bull market, which made every decision appear to be absolutely the right decision. Part of it is a function of the complexity of new instruments that are available to create investments — derivative products, options, instruments — which were never available before. Part of it, I think, is a function of the greed factor that’s involved. American business is extraordinarily competitive. And if Company A and B are movin
