This article argues that the business policies of the German credit banks were only a secondary cause of the troubles that befell them between the wars and that the primary explanation lies in the instability of their monetary environment and of the credit sector's competitive structure. By carefully tracing the impacts of the interwar inflation and stabilization and of the 1931 crisis on the German banking industry, setting them in the context of domestic and international political developments, the article explains the limited choices available to the banks in this period and their relative eclipse during the Third Reich.

There is a moral dimension in all business decisions. When planning a corporate takeover, which substance to use for a product, whether to hire temps or full-time workers, or where to invest, all reflect values and hence moral considerations. It is not enough to change people, we must change the structure. Within the corporate structure it is important to have special divisions dedicated to the implementation of ethics such as internal audit committees. The same might be said about business schools; to enhance ethicality, we need both that all faculty become more committed to moral education and special departments dedicated to it. Also the neo-classsical, deontological paradigm needs to be combined with deontological, social paradigms. The challenge that one cannot teach ethics because it's unclear whose values we are going to teach, can be dealt with by teaching values we all share, and knowledge and respect for those that divide us.

The paper argues that the point of a business ethics course is to improve behavior in business, and that an essential ingredient in that improved behavior is knowing what's right or wrong. To make that claim, the paper attempts to dispose of three arguments which support the contrary claim, that business ethics courses are useless. First, it is argued that morals can't be taught, since they only result from training. Second, it is argued that such courses are unnecessary because business executives already know right from wrong. Third, it is argued that ethical knowledge is impossible, so there is nothing to teach. The first two arguments are dealt with briefly, and the third is addressed extensively. The paper argues that the scepticism about ethical knowledge is part of a pervasive “relativism” in our society, but shows that such a relativism/scepticism is untenable and indicates how ethical knowledge is possible. If, then, knowledge of right and wrong is an essential ingredient for improving business behavior, and such knowledge can be imparted in an ethics course, there is some point to teaching business ethics.

My anger at the fishermen, I realize, was directed at the conspicuous costliness of their gear, the excessiveness of the new van, because otherwise, I would have to acknowledge them as other versions of myself. Frustrated because they were where I wanted to be and were doing what I wanted to do, I tried to divert the issue to how they were going about it all. I tried to make it an argument about character rather than envy.1