Global Financial Crisis In my point of view the crisis of 2008 was not a natural disaster but was an outcome

of the various unethical business actions of the big players of US economy. The fall out was an outcome of conflicting interests. It all started when the owners of the publically held firm prioritized maximizing their returns instead of maximizing the returns of their shareholders. As per theory the study of business ethics is a study of political economy and political philosophy focusing on the rights and wrongs of the economic distribution. But the agents of the banks mentioned in the case study seem to have overruled the concept of right and wrong; instead introduced a new theory that nothing is right or wrong in business and the only thing that counts is the monetary gain/loss. And thus the base of US economy was changed from a social economy to capitalism; where in the products/services are produced for profit and thus were based on indirect allocations. This proved that certainly there was a lack of ethics on Wall Street. And whenever any government sees the risk of such actions it wants to prevent those firms from bankruptcy by providing bailout packages and bringing in more reformed regulations for social improvement. One such regulation that has been introduced is Transparency; where the financial institutions were required to present a regular report in the standard accounting format. But a question is that whether bringing regulation in business is a solution to this very complex problem? Because regulation may sound to be a solution to the problem but it is actually another invisible helping hand for the big players like Gold Man Sachs. This is because any business seeking greater regulation is a business that wants to benefit from such intervention. Government regulation creates barriers for new businesses to enter the marketplace. These barriers give existing companies distinct competitive advantages over potential competitors. Thus, increasing regulation benefits large existing companies, which reduces competition and promotes unethical business practices. Also the public has a primitive understanding of the working of the investment banks and so many times they get misguided by the technical reports presented to them. Thus, the only thing these institutions could do to improve their reputation is to ensure that they disclose information on their progress, every year. This will not only improve transparency among smaller and less experienced participants, but will also help measure the continuous progress and performance improvement among these firms. The banks definitely do provide valuable societal goods but the purpose is to increase their own capital and that is what led to the crisis. Thus, the discussion on a whole can be concluded by saying that the only way to reduce this capitalism is by educating the society giving them a proper understanding of the social economy which will ensure that the banks would then provide valuable societal goods/services that would focus on satisfying the economic demands and human needs instead of focusing on increasing their own profits by accumulating more capital.