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Ethics for Breakfast presents
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 Wednesday, Jan. 21st, 2008
7:15 - 8:30 am
Rogue Traders:
The canaries in the mine(field) of the Economic Meltdown
with Dr. Mark Wexler, Endowed University Professor of Business Ethics, Segal Graduate School of Business Administration, SFU
If we had interpreted the signs better...
could we have seen this coming?
In this session, Dr. Mark Wexler will look at Conrad's Heart of Darkness -- a famous story about a rogue ivory trader -- as a parable for considering our recent economic meltdown, and navigating through the ethical quagmire and ongoing excuses about what caused it.
In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz (played by Marlon Brando in the film Apocalypse Now) was an ivory trader who "went rogue." Employed by the Company and admired by all the traders, he purchased more than 10 times the ivory of the next most productive trader, and was given increasing autonomy to 'do as he would' as long as he continued to rack up stupendous profits. But in time, Kurtz went rogue and the Company had to stop him – lest it become known not only that they were in trouble, but that they had created much of it by inducing their star trader to go over the edge.
Loosely based on his paper, "Financial edgework and the persistence of rogue traders" (forthcoming in Business Ethics: A European Journal), Mark will look at:
• the relationship between speculative brokers and the brokerage houses that employ them
• trading and loss limits -- deemed "immutable" by brokerage houses to their customers, but "negotiable" to their star traders
• inducements to traders, provided by brokerage houses, that frame "betting as a form of risk;" and
• why he believes that rogue traders can be seen as the "canaries in the mine(field)" of our present economic situation.
Join us for a lively and thought provoking talk/discussion with our "resident Ethics expert," Dr. Mark Wexler.
click here to RSVP -or- phone 604.685-6560
DATE: Wednesday, January 21st -- 7:15-8:30 am
LOCATION: BC Hydro Building
333 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver
Check-in at Security Desk - Main floor lobby
COST: Members - $7.00 Non-Members - $10.00
(muffins, tea and coffee included)
click here to RSVP or phone: 604-685-6560
About Our Speaker:
Dr. Mark N. Wexler is Endowed University Professor of Business Ethics at the Segal Graduate School of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Executive Director of the Perimeter Group of Ethics Consultants, and Vice President of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
Mark is a four-time teaching award winner and a recipient of the PricewaterhouseCoopers "Leadership in Management Education" Award. Previously the Astra-Zeneca Ethics Scholar-in-Residence at McGill University, he has also been visiting Professor at the Universities of Michigan, Macquarie (Sydney, Australia) and ESCM (Tours/France).
Dr. Wexler's teaching, research and consulting focus on the moral quandaries men and women face in the business world. Mark's published work has appeared in over 120 refereed journal outlets and in eight books. His most recent book is Leadership in Context: The Four Faces of Capitalism, published by Edward Elgar Press in 2005. And he is currently working on a new book entitled: The Organization of Scandal: Understanding processes of disrepute and moral controversy.
Note: For those not able to attend or uncomfortable with raising questions during the session, Mark will make copies of his discussion available and invites you to contact him at wexler@sfu.ca.
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