You must remember that today's whirlwind creates tomorrow's dust. It's far safer to relate events to principles that, by definition, cannot change. According to Plato, anonymity and honesty are mutually exclusive. Even the most honest man, he wrote, would become a thief if he were certain he could get away with it. Right action, in other words, must be supported by accountability. There's a clue here. If business and political leaders knew that they would be personally accountable for the consequences of doing nothing whenever action -however unpalatable - is needed, many a catastrophe would be avoided. In our 'sticking plaster' age, resistance to tough decisions exists at every level. Dubious loans are sanctioned by risk committees to whom it would have been obvious, if they'd looked, that default would follow, but hiding behind a faceless committee dodges personal accountability.
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