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http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/mar2009/ca20090319_591214.htm

       The financial meltdown in the US  is tied to the stock brokers rationalizing their emotional distance between their transactions and the negative consequences that came with it. Upton Sinclair once quoted ” it is difficult for a man to understand something when his salary depends on him not knowing it,” This quote describes the case of enormous bonuses given out for each transaction. Like most competitive businessmen, the incentive of profit maximization was the rationalizing agent used by the brokers to follow through with it.

      For example the sub prime mortgage crisis, this crisis was the catalyst of the financial meltdown. The brokers were given bonuses for the number of transactions made rather than the quality of the transactions. Quality meaning how credible the person was in terms of being able to pay the loan. Ethically speaking, the brokers should have taken into consideration what could potentially happen from their transactions, but they didn’t because the money was too good to refuse. 

      In conclusion, the competitive nature of business sometimes gets the best of people in the industry  in this case, a enormous financial meltdown resulted because of their unethical behavior. They put aside their conscience, in a sense, to make themselves better off while leaving a majority of people homeless and in a financial mess.