The business world saw numerous examples of ethical transgressions. Raj Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group, and Rajat K. Gupta, a former director of Procter & Gamble and former head of McKinsey & Co., were convicted of insider trading. And Barclays Bank, UBS, and Royal Bank of Scotland paid...

Not long ago Gold was a universal legal tender. Governments held it in forts. The bank's kept it in a safe. It was the most precious of precious metals. And investors bought gold for safety's sake, when markets and economies crashed and the value of paper currency was in doubt. But that was a...