We should not be surprised, then, to see a reemergence in recent years of the value placed by markets on trust and personal reputation in business practice. After the recent revelations of corporate malfeasance, the market punished the stock prices of those corporations whose behavior had cast doubt on the reliability of their reputations.
There may be no better antidote for business and financial transgression. Corporate scandals and evidence of fraud and malfeasance notwithstanding, the history of rising standards of living in a world fearful of violence is extraordinary testimony to the resilience of free peoples engaged in commerce. Our system works fundamentally on trust and individual fair dealing.