The settlement of charges first brought by Eliot Spitzer, attorney-general of New York, of conflicts of interest between equity analysts and investment bankers has left reputations besmirched.
This leaves reputation trails and discourages vandalism.
But crime and blight have left its reputation in tatters.
But Mr. Giuliani's measured and courtly performance, unruffled by conspicuously gentle questioning from the commission, left his reputation essentially unscathed.
Events such as Black Wednesday had left the reputation of John Major's government in tatters; ministers were tarred with accusations of sleaze and infighting.
The world's largest drug company, Pfizer, has handled mergers badly, invented too few drugs and left its reputation in disrepair after two criminal cases.
The sessions led to a large-scale makeover of financial regulation and left the reputation of the industry scarred for decades.
One of his many tactical errors was the assertion that the killer craved publicity; his complicity in the crude hoax left his reputation in tatters.
A number of scandals emanating from his period in office have left his reputation largely unsullied while tearing those of other people to shreds.
The defeat left his reputation as a historian utterly destroyed, and the author of the bestseller, Hitler's War, facing bankruptcy and the loss of his Mayfair flat.
And the fact is that they have broken alliances across the planet that have served us well for years, they've left our reputation in tatters.
