The market has been continually escalating more toward an emphasis on profits at all cost, with the exception of what is illegal. There is also such a thing as ruling out what is immoral or bad behavior, but we have tossed those elements right out of the equation. It has been so subtle over the last 25 to 30 years that no one ever really noticed.
 
In buying companies, I dealt with many equity and asset management firms because they have taken the place of banks in the world today; that was a real eye-opener for me and one of the reasons I wrote the book. We’d shake hands on a deal and the next morning they’d show up and start negotiating all over again. Your word means virtually nothing, and their contracts are so filled with loopholes that they mean virtually nothing. I went to not one or two but eight or nine of them, and it was an embarrassment to be a part of the American financial system. This is not the second- or third-level people. I’m talking about presidents and chairmen, many of whom are well known.

I don’t want to sound too critical because there are so many exceptions—there are great lawyers, there are great bankers and there are tremendous people who are exceptions to the rule. I’m very proud of David Matlin, who runs the investment fund Matlin Patterson Global Opportunities Partners; [he] is our partner. I give him very high marks in a very cutthroat world out there. But there are a lot of people who get right to the point of legality and make sure that what they are doing is not illegal, but it could be unethical.

But you built Huntsman Chemical by buying distressed companies at rock-bottom prices, including an acquisition of the Hoechst plants that you took off their hands for no money down.

When you are dealing with a company that wants to get rid of a distressed division, you offer them a price that reflects their value, and you take care of their employees. That is all fair. What I’m saying is that once we agree on a price, we are supposed to quit negotiating and shake hands. You don’t come back and start negotiating the next morning. You can keep negotiating for months, but once you say this is the deal and the other side says the same thing and you shake hands, that ought to be as binding as a lawyer writing a contract. I just wish it were. It used to be.