crushed as he tried to apply ethical principles to what is at best an amoral realm.
This is not to say that every individual or firm on Wall Street is by definition unethical. It is to say, however, that the temptation to engage in unethical behavior for the sake of big, quick profits is greater on Wall Street than in any other realm of American capitalist enterprise. To many, such as Boesky, Milken and others, the potential profits are worth the risk.
Lewis writes of his experiences at Salomon Brothers and the pressures of the environment which create an atmosphere where unethical behavior becomes the norm. We can easily understand the role of greed in the creation of unethical behavior on Wall Street, but perhaps we are not as familiar with the role of fear in that process.
Lewis introduces us to this overriding sense of fear when he describes the presence of the chairman of Salomon Brothers: "At any given moment on the trading floor billions of dollars were being risked by bond traders. (Chairman John) Gutfreund took the pulse of the place by
...