This TED Talk features political economist Alexander Wagner, recorded live at TEDx Zurich, 2016.

How many companies have you interacted with today?

Well, you got up in the morning, I took a shower, washed a hair, just a hair dryer.

We had breakfast, ate cereals, fruit, yogurt, whatever, had coffee, tea.

You took public transfer to come here, or maybe used to your private car.

You interacted with the company that you work for or that you own.

You interacted with your clients, your customers, and so on and so forth.

I'm pretty sure there are at least seven companies you have interacted with today.

Let me tell you a stunning statistic.

One out of seven large public corporations commit fraud every year.

This is a U.S. academic study that looks at U.S. companies.

I have no reason to believe that's different in Europe.

This is a study that looks at both detected and undetected fraud using statistical methods.

This is not petty fraud.

These frauds cost the shareholders of these companies,

and therefore society on the order of $380 billion per year.

We can all think of some examples.

The car industries' secrets aren't quite so secret anymore.

Fraud has become a feature, not a bug, of the financial services industry.

That's not me who's claiming that.

That's the president of the American Finance Association, who stated that in his presidential

address.

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