Is ‘hitting the number” an appropriate goal, given the Chapter 1 contrast of profit and shareholder wealth maximization? If no why do executives emphasize it.

The poster boy for moral risk, exemplifying the devastating effects of unethical behavior for a company’s investors, has to be Nick Lesson. As a futures trader Lesson violated his bank’s investing rules while secretly placing huge bets on the direction of the Japanese stock market. When those Sets proved wrong, the $1.24 billon losses resulted in the 1995 demise of the centuries-old Barings Bank More than any other single episode in world financial history Lesson’s misdeed provide the importance of character in the financial industry.