ABSTRACT
Corporate incompetence in financial institutions and in particular that of top executives in investment banking is typically not one of a lack of understanding of the technical complexity of financial products, or their exact nature and purpose. Technical ignorance in the upper echelons of management in financial institutions, and its contribution to a shameful and tragic outcome to the worlds financial system, was not a decisive factor. Soros makes this crucial distinction to explain the concept of reflexivity in describing what he considers a fundamental problem of contemporary economic theory. In order to clearly assess the promiscuity and cynicism entailed in all of this, it is worth mentioning that the Midas touch was given by Wall Street, for whom Bernie Ebbers epitomized anything and everything that was good about corporate America. The WorldCom case becomes even more sinister when it is known that seasoned individuals with many years of experience at the highest level of management in the telecommunications sector.
