It is now a commonplace for publicly traded corporations to include in their regulatory filings, annual reports, and assorted communiques so-called "aspirational statements," proclamations memorializing the company's deep commitment to transacting business with honesty and integrity, while observing the highest ethics. While critics deride the practice as, at best, merely stating the obvious, and, at worse, disingenuous self-congratulation (and they might have a point), most do no more than mildly applaud such public declarations of fealty to good corporate citizenship.