Trust in the Finance Industry

In this course we will review and assess recent challenges of trust in the finance industry, including private and public initiatives to restore such trust. The course will review case studies when financial trust broke down, including the 1971 abandonment of the gold standard, the repeal of Glass Steagall Act in 1999, the sustained financial deregulatory effort at the beginning of the 21st century, the Enron accounting fraud, the Madoff swindle, and the 2008 financial crisis. We will consider both public and private response initiatives to deal with breakdown of trust, and gauge the overall impact of those responses to the likely future of enhancing trust in the finance industry.