Why corporate suicide fails the test of taking responsibility

Financial people may or may not be more likely than others to kill themselves after they've suffered a reversal, but there's no question that they enjoy a reputation for doing so.

Disgraced politicians, disbarred lawyers, doctors guilty of malpractice, field-goal kickers who crush the hopes of entire cities. . . none of these people do we half-expect, after they fail, to find some high ledge to jump from. If you work with money you are thought to be, in this one respect, a bit less like any ordinary professional than a jilted lover or a misunderstood artist. Why?

The question naturally arises in the wake of the recent suicides of Adolf Merckle and, especially, Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet. The latter, the 65-year-old head of Access International Advisors, lost millions of his own and even more of other people's money by placing them with Bernie Madoff. On Dec 22, even before he could have known for sure how much he had lost, he shut himself in his office, swallowed sleeping pills, and slashed his wrists.