The Business of Money

If those who manage and gather it
Were not so quick to slather it
On those who watch and legislate it,
Less so for to regulate it,
Likely there'd be risk in it,
But less than now exists in it,
Regaining public trust in it
When rules are more robust in it.

Last night, Dr. Goose attended a stimulating panel discussion at the Museum of the City of New York entitled: "Can Wall Street Reinvent Itself?" The short answer is that nobody knows, but you can provoke some necessary clear thinking and soul-searching when smart, knowledgable and conscientious people tackle the question. Moderated by NYU financial law professor and retired Lehman investment banker Ronald Filler, the panel included -

• Josh Brown, financial advisor at Fusion Analytics and former broker, author of Backstage Wall Street, blogger at Reformed Broker;
• Heidi N. Moore, New York bureau chief of Marketplace radio and former Wall Street Journal reporter;
• Bill Miller, partner at the Herskovits law firm, providing legal counsel to securities-industry firms, registered persons, whistleblowers and defrauded investors; Forbes contributor, blogger at Broke and Broker.

If there was consensus among the panel, it was that the public's trust is damaged and can only be regained by by an industry structure that rewards working in the client's interest, with simple, strong rules to enforce such behavior.

Why Did the Market Fall?

Said an equity trader, "I'll cop to this:
I can't tell why we tanked from the top to this,
But the punters of punts
All concluded at once -
There's no basis for being an optimist."

From London and Frankfurt to New York and Tokyo, stocks fell around the world on Thursday and continued on into Friday. The S&P 500 closed at 1200, a level not seen since last December. Many were caught by surprise and looked for the catalyst that would explain such a dramatic global correction; but, as Marketplace's Heidi Moore put it in her blog,

"No one knows... 'The Market' is too large, too sprawling, and is filled with people moving their own investments for their own reasons. Saying “the market was worried about recession today” is like saying “all the waves in all the oceans started to worry about global warming.”"

Still, once may hazard a guess that, with the removal of the US debt ceiling as a focal point for fear, market participants could look around and notice that nothing else was going right.