The fact is, Wall Street today is a very different place than the one contemplated by the crafters of the 1930s regulations. Indeed, it’s hardly a place at all. It’s more a swirling vortex of profit-seeking electrons. With the dismantling of key regulations starting in the 1970s, the shifting of risk from investment firms to shareholders, and an explosion of financial engineering and risk taking, the financial sector morphed from a productive industry that enabled the growth of business and promoted an inclusive prosperity to one that puts its own profit above all else, including clients, business, and society at large. As Philipp Meyer, a former Wall Street trader turned writer, told Time magazine: “With a trader, the goal of every minute of every day is to make money. So if running the economy off the cliff makes you money, you will do it, and you will do it every day of every week.”
Amy Cortese
Locavesting
