Yesterday I wrote about a husband and wife who are economists stationed in Afghanistan. Somehow, that set up a stream of connections about the world structure from an economic perspective. The next night, still in London, there was a CNBC show called “House of Cards” about the failures of Wall Street and the mortgage mess. It grabbed my attention.

While riding the Tube, eating fish and chips, window shopping, meeting with clients, talking with friends, my mind had a strong background song repeating and repeating about power, evil and possibilities (or the lack of them!). 

 One thing that stands out like a broken record is an Alan Greenspan comment made on the CNBC special when he was interviewed about how the house of cards was built and how it tumbled down. He smiled a weary smile and then acknowledged that the essence of the situation was greed and that greed is something that has always been and always will. He indicated that what happened would have happened no matter what structures would have been put in place. He also felt this will happen again and again because people are just greedy. That’s it! Greed always has been and always will be.

I wonder if any of you reading this have a different point of view? Is greed the driving force of business? Is leadership development training about ethics and morals a waste of time? Is it best to protect ourselves, play it close to the chest, and only worry about ourselves and our families?  Is having a social conscience naïve and ultimately a way to head for personal disaster? Are there better ways to look at the dilemma of greed so prevalent in our society?

I sure would like to hear from you. Anyone who sends an answer that we can put on the blog will get an autographed copy of my book “Don’t Bring It to Work”. Give hope or say Greenspan is right, just give your perspective why. I look forward to hearing from you.