"Teaching Business Ethics in the Age of Madoff" provides a brief overview of the field of business ethics, including a quick history, with particular attention to the role of scandals. The authors dispute four commonly held misconceptions about business: Markets are perfect, or at least efficient; human beings are always self-interested; economic models and reasoning can explain most of what is interesting about business; and ethics is about altruism. Those misguided ideas are replaced by new ways to think about business: Business is primarily about purpose; money and profits follow. Any business creates (or sometimes destroys) value for shareholders, as well as for customers, employees, suppliers, and communities. Capitalism works because we are complex creatures with many needs and desires, and we can cooperate to create value for each other. And finally, most people tell the truth, keep their promises, and act responsibly most of the time. The authors offer specific solutions on how business ethics educators can begin to change these unhelpful and out-of-date mindsets about business, helping move future business leaders--and ultimately society at large--toward a more useful, forward-looking understanding about the interrelationship between business and society. (Contains 7 resources.)