Investment Ethics: Course explores dollars, decency

Marquette has started an Investment Ethics course. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered reported on the class yesterday.

JS Online: Course explores dollars, decency:

"'Ethics in finance is a trifle specialized, especially at the undergraduate level,' says John Boatright, a professor of business ethics at Loyola University in Chicago and author of the text 'Ethics in Finance.' 'At the undergraduate level, students are much more likely to encounter ethics in finance as part of a broad course in business ethics.'

Such broad courses are common, he says, because students need to get a clear understanding of business practices to appreciate what makes some actions unethical.

'If someone gets mugged on the street, you know that's wrong,' he says, 'but if someone engages in insider trading, people may not be able to understand exactly what is wrong with that practice. . . . One's eye has to be trained to see where there are ethical problems.'"

The class is taught by Sarah Peck and uses many videos to bring ethical questions into the class.