In this essay for The American Scholar Magazine, Monitor co-founder Joseph Fuller argues that Wall Street's use of computer-based models worsened the current financial crisis and recommends ways to make financial firms more responsible for managing the risk these models introduce.

The Satyam financial fraud scandal has dragged an otherwise anonymous group — corporate directors — into the spotlight. Directors will be expected to provide greater scrutiny to assertions made by executives, write Monitor Group's Joseph Fuller and Nikhil Prasad Ojha in an opinion column, "What's a director to do?" in The Business Standard of New Delhi, India.

The advent of computer-based, program trading is arguably the most important change in global investing. Like in so many Hollywood scripts, this gradual shift seemed benign and protagonists failed to pick up foreshadowing signals. Now regulators and legislators working to prevent a future financial calamity must account for the pervasive role that models now play in making global markets.

How could public companies provide so much data and yet still fail to give investors and regulators enough information to spot enormous financial landmines before they blew up? It’s clear we need new ways to analyze company valuations and financial risk.

The stances of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton on the North American Free Trade Agreement reflect an emerging trend among politicians to undermine trade agreements through the use of administrative mechanisms.