The economist J.K. Galbraith asserted that fraud rose in a bull market and shrank in a slump. As he put it, the "bezzle" rises in a boom because of lax controls and fades in a bust.

The discovery of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme suggests Galbraith may be right about large-scale embezzlement, but my experience is the opposite when it comes to petty larceny. In other words, I suspect industry is enduring an epidemic of crime right now, as integrity becomes a casualty of the recession.