Corporate Leaders Say Rules Can't Replace Ethics or Ward Off Determined Management Crooks: "This year, there were more voices cautioning that regulation alone can't substitute for strong boards of directors and executives willing to stress personal integrity.

Boards need to be independent and make sure they're hiring people of integrity as chief executive officers, said Robert Diamond, chief executive of Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Britain's Barclays.

'The quality of the CEO goes to the heart of the board's responsibilities,' said Diamond.

'I do think rules are important, I do think law is important, and I absolutely endorse a strong regulatory framework. But within that, what we've found is that crooks can be crooks and that bad behavior can be bad behavior,'"

[...]

Denise Nappier, Connecticut's treasurer, said the new disclosure rules had "substantial gaps" and could be toughened for issues ranging from disclosure on companies' relationships with outside entities to unreadable language.

"When are we going to get plain language?" she asked. Company statements "read like they've been written by a corporate lawyer to a plaintiff's attorney."

Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, based in Belgium, argued that unless standards of behavior are written down in law, good companies leave themselves vulnerable to less scrupulous competitors willing to cut corners.

"That actually makes the business case for your values impossible to sustain," he said.

"If you believe in values, then shouldn't you legislate those values?"

CLB: Bingo. All game theoretic models, whether in business or not, have native dilemmas and paradoxes to be discovered. This includes systems of laws, even those as sophisticated (read overly complex) as our modern political/ economic structure.

Quite specifically, it is about how you play the game, with good intentions or without. Ask Mr. Black in Canada. Did he play the aptly called game with integrity? For those who have claimed toadmire him in the past, do you still?