Agents create and administer symbolic wealth, often taking custody of tangible property in exchange for worthless promissory symbols of potential earnings. And, even when they resist these temptations, trustworthy agents are beset by conflicting claims from their various role identities that may undermine overall fidelity. Agents therefore hold structural opportunities to "take the money-in all its manifest forms-and run," while unwitting principals, blinded by distance, organizational structure, secrecy, and lack of expertise, idly await the future dividends of symbolic promises made by faceless strangers. " Hence, the problem of trust.

DEFINE: Defines the 'problem of trust' as a structural agency problem where symbolic promises and asymmetric information create opportunities for fiduciary betrayal.

Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Imper…, loc. 35