Wall Street Earns Poor Grades from Main Street For Honesty and Ethics, New Survey Finds

Don’t trust Wall Street executives? You’re not alone, according to a new survey of public opinion on the honesty and ethics of the nation’s top business executives.

In a nationwide survey of over 2,000 adults and 100 business executives conducted by researchers at Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, New York, nearly six out 10 Americans gave failing grades to Wall Street business executives in terms of honesty and ethics.

Many respondents blamed unethical and dishonest behavior by Wall Street executives for causing or at least contributing to the nation’s current economic recession, considered the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Just how bad have things gotten on Wall Street? Consider this; even lawyers, long the focus of public scorn and the butt of bad jokes (“How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?”) fared better in the survey. Only a third of survey respondents gave poor grades for ethics and honesty to lawyers, with one in four giving the profession high marks.

Other Business Leaders Fared Slightly Better

Americans facing shrinking investments, lost jobs, and rising consumer costs seem to be saving their harshest criticism for Wall Street, the survey found. Corporate executives earned slightly higher marks for honesty and ethics, earning poor grades from about 49 percent of those polled.

Nearly 58 percent gave failing grades to top business executives for leadership during the economic crisis, while 31 percent rated them as fair, nine percent as good, and two percent (who apparently have been living in caves for the past year) rating their performance during the crisis as excellent.

Executives Polled Give Themselves Higher Marks

The business leaders surveyed, representing Fortune 1000 firms and companies with annual sales of $500 million or more, gave themselves more credit for honesty, leadership, and other qualities than the general public.

Among the executives polled, only 19 percent gave themselves poor grades for leadership, while 53 percent rated themselves as fair, 27 percent as good, and one percent as excellent.

While almost 70 percent of the general public blamed a company’s failure or success on the decisions of its top executives, that number rose to 88 percent among the executives. Just 31 percent of non-executives blamed outside forces such as the economy’s health for influencing top executives, while only 12 percent of the executives polled felt the same way, according to the survey.

Despite daily news headlines of corporate scandals and mishandling of financial affairs, 75 percent of adults and 85 percent of executives gave their own companies good or excellent grades for ethics.

Oh, and by the way, the punch line to the lawyer joke included above is, of course, “their lips are moving.”

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