Today's Stockexchange is the poison for all companies, it seems. As soon as they get there, the end is near. Greed has always existed! Yet today a mere stagnation is considered a failure, loss. NOTHING in life goes up only, but only spoiled brats try denying that.
Well, the thing with corporations is that they have only one duty: make profit for the shareholders. Every action and decision is expected to serve that purpose. CEO and the board can be held responsible, if they act in a way that significantly go against that purpose. 1/
So it's not like stock exchange and capitalism in general fosters greed; to maximise profit is the very point of it. Of course there could be other metrics, like to maximise prosperity of employees or to maximise contributions for the embetterment of society,but the shareholder is valued the most/2