"To tackle the values crisis in our society, we need those at the top to start behaving better, too.

The economy, they continue, is also a values crisis, a failure on the part of the banks and government to respect our collective inter-dependence.

Yes, we have a moral values crisis in this country, and it has little to do with who does and doesn't believe in God.

But to correct the "values crisis," Mr. George said, the need for change is not limited to the executive suite.

"China is in a values crisis.

Meanwhile, Mr Miliband blamed the riots on a "values crisis" across society.

"Unsustainability can be seen to be not an environmental or social crisis as such, but rather a values crisis with adverse ecological and social symptoms.

"The housing value crisis is spreading and deepening," said David Abromowitz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Behind the talk is a sense that the country is in the throes of a values crisis and that the breakdown of the family is to blame.

Blaming the riots on a "values crisis" across society, Mr Miliband also linked the widespread looting and disorder to the banking crisis, MPs' expenses scandal and phone hacking.

Mr. Clinton said today that he agreed with the White House that there is a "values crisis" in America, but he said the Bush Administration has taken no action to address it.

Then there is the value crisis of the industry analysts, those morons who were still putting out "buy" notices on Enron even after it was apparent to even the most dimwitted observer that the companies was a dangerous house of cards.