Wall Street Firms Agree To $1 Billion Settlement

from the where-does-that-money-go? dept

Apparently, a bunch of Wall Street firms have agreed to pay $1 billion to settle charges that they misled investors during the boom years. The firms are also agreeing to further separate their research arms from the investment banking side of things. The question, of course, is how much of this money actually goes back into the wallets of those investors who were "misled". I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, these banks clearly weren't doing the job they were supposed to do, and deserve to be punished in some way. However, others share the guilt. There was no true oversight of how investment banking worked. Also, I don't have all that much sympathy for the investors who got tricked. First of all, they were helping to push the banks and analysts onward to act this way - and they got angry when there was any hint of reality tossed out on Wall Street. Furthermore, any investor with half a brain knew what was going on at the investment banks. Anyone who took their advice without doing the most basic due diligence on their own was greedy, stupid, or both.

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