Pride Goeth Before...

Am reading Icarus in the Boardroom by our own ruling elder David Skeel. It is a look at corporate scandals in historical context. Right now I am in the chapter about the rise and fall of Jay Cooke in the mid-1800s. David notes three factors that are involved in corporation collapses: excessive and sometimes fraudulent risks, competition, and the increasing size and complexity of the corporation. If this were a blatantly Christian book, he could rephrase his language to say that the underlying causes are pride and greed. The first historical example given lays open the greed of men to get as large of a piece of the money pie as possible and the pride of successful men to believe that they cannot fail whatever the risks. Check out today's "Proverb of the Day" (see side column) for the Bible's commentary on the subject.