WALL STREET may be awash with sociopaths (“The gaggle of economic sociopaths,’’ Op-ed, Oct. 31), but the financial system in which they operate is replete with enablers who permit socially irresponsible behavior to persist and thrive.
Trustees of public pension funds and university and foundation endowments permit their asset managers to invest in high-risk financial products that endanger the long-term well-being of beneficiaries and organizations. Government regulators for years have implicitly blessed virtually any product that Wall Street cares to invent, regardless of its intrinsic social risks. Ratings agencies give investors their stamp of approval to exotic, high-risk financial products that have helped bring the global financial system to its knees. Business schools perpetuate a myopic and socially injurious perspective on the role of finance in the modern economy.
All this does not excuse the “incorrigible individuals’’ who practice investment banking. But it is a reminder that piecemeal, reactive responses to each financial crisis are no substitute for systematic, proactive measures. This is the only way to contain the worst animal spirits of Wall Street and to design a sustainable, responsible financial system.
Allen L. White
Boston
The writer is a senior fellow at the Tellus Institute. 
