Students applauded Boesky’s public celebration of greed just before his downfall

Evidence

Before his downfall for insider trading in merges and hostile takeovers, Ivan Boesky delivered the commencement address at the University of California, Berkeley, announcing, “Greed is all right… . I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself” (Stewart, 1991). The students greeted this conversion of greediness to a virtue with laughter and applause. Healthy greediness eventually got Boesky a stint in jail and a $100 million fine for insider trading. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1428

Categorization

• CANDY: Astonishing detail worth dropping in conversation: the man who delivered a ‘greed is healthy’ commencement address was fined $100 million for insider trading.