Magnifisyncopathological

Sydney Morning Herald: More corporate collapses likely: Evans

Large corporations would continue to collapse due to their willful disregard for business values, Westpac director Ted Evans has warned.

In a speech Mr Evans gave to the Griffith University Business School, he warned that major collapses like Enron and HIH are bound to keep happening in the corporate world.

[...]

Mr Evans said companies were going under not because of simple incompetence but because they chose to ignore the ethical rules that bind a healthy, capitalist system.

As a result, this was steadily eroding the foundations of modern capitalism.

"... The policy response (to corporate collapse) in so many countries, most notably the United States, has been to enact highly prescriptive corporations law that of itself will greatly weaken the competitive forces that are critical to the efficient operation of a modern economy," he said.

"I believe that the solution to this type of problem can only lie in a return to corporate behaviour that has a basis in ethical values; behaviour that renders prescriptive law redundant."

© 2004 Australian Associated Press Pty Limited