Ethics is for Wimps? I don't think so.

The more-macho-than-you culture that flourished on Wall Street apparently believed that ethics was for wimps. Make your own rules. Bite the other guy before he bites you. Winner take all, and winning is the only thing that matters.

Doing the right thing, in other words, is for losers. In the "immortal" words of the late Leona Helmsley, "Only the little people pay taxes."

I would argue the opposite. That it takes strength and self-confidence to consider the moral implications of your actions. All too often the unethical path is the easy way out, the go-along-to-get-along route.

An example: Years ago, when I started a new job at Company X, knowing that I would have to travel extensively for the company, I asked about company credit cards, and was told that there weren't any. Really? I thought -- that seems odd, but okay. How about paying the annual fee on a second card so that I could keep all my business expenses separate from my personal expenses? No, I was told, the company wouldn't do that either.

This just seemed too peculiar to me, so I went down to the benefits department to ask a more senior person about this policy. And here's what I was told: Company X used to have corporate credit cards, but some of the sales force had abused the privilege, so the company had revoked all the cards.

Was that the ethical response? Of course not. The company should have fired the folks who abused the privilege; instead, they punished the honest along with the, um, not-so-honest.

The problem, of course, had been that some of the guilty had friends in very high places....