David Warren, an independent business consultant who once worked in Manhattan and Tokyo in the financial services industry and now lives in Heber City, shares Huntsman's analysis.

"In the competitive big leagues, integrity is naivete," Warren said. "If your basic interest is not making that extra dollar — if your basic interest isn't to win at whatever cost — then you have predictable weaknesses that others can exploit."

Warren knows firsthand. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Warren recalls a job interview at a New York investment bank for a position in international institutional sales and trading.

"The first half of the day was really energizing — two phones at once, big deals going down," Warren said. "Then something happened. The whole atmosphere changed."

Warren was told a so-called "cram order" had been given. Cram orders meant that the firm had to unload some of its own proprietary investments — poised to lose money — to clients.

"They realized they had a big, bad position that they needed to unwind before the market in general knew," Warren said. "So in loyalty to your company you need to unwind it to those other people. You need to cram it down their throats. . . . You don't necessarily lie about it, you just talk about the good points. You're a salesman. It's not your job to give an impartial, balanced view."

The experience convinced Warren to turn down a six-figure salary offer from the firm.

But Huntsman's book goes beyond such Wall Street shenanigans. Perhaps his harshest criticism is saved for corporate lawyers, who Huntsman believes are "stripping America of personal accountability and trust."

"There is a fun fact that suggests America has 40 lawyers for every engineer, whereas China, emerging as one of the world's most dynamic nations, has 40 engineers for every lawyer," Huntsman said. "I am not sure exactly what that says, but it can't be a plus for the United States."

Warren said while working in New York City, he routinely experienced overbilling by outside corporate law firms.

"I always kept my own log of time," Warren said. "Because, invariably, when the bill came in, their hours would be significantly above anything that I had recorded. I had to be able to go through and point by point challenge their accounting. It seemed to be a game with them."

Callahan recounts one associate who revealed that billing occurs in six-minute increments but that lawyers routinely round up. "If you worked seven minutes, you bill 12; one minute, you bill six. . . . Everybody does it at some point."