[msiemens]

I guess it depends. I have a German engineering degree and took a business administration course as a part of that. And in one of the first lectures our professor told us that The formal goal of the company is to maximize profit. Which seems to be just a more formal way of expressing Greed is good. But then again, this might be influenced by American business culture…

[neuronic]

Agreed, and I obviously suffer from some bias since I could not experience college in both countries.

But the microeconomics angle seemed more personal - as in attempting to describe interaction between people with some extrapolation to larger entities.