For months we’ve heard everyone talking about how Wall Street is dead and how the current financial crisis will cause massive, plate-tectonics-like changes that will alter the financial landscape and the regulatory framework forever, and after all is said and done the legacy of the Obama administration will be that the financial system will no longer be fueled by opportunity and avarice, but by one man’s desire to do good for another. But we’ve always kind of thought: Hmmm, probably not, especially since we’ve so fully committed to supporting the longevity of the financial institutions that caused said problems. And yesterday, H. Rodgin Cohen, the chairman of law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, came right out and said it at a Bloomberg-sponsored panel discussion on the future of Wall Street.
Everything’s going to stay the same
“The system will look more like what preceded the current environment than many people seem to believe.”
And furthermore, we like it that way:
“I am far from convinced there was something inherently wrong with the system.”
So, ok. That the system suddenly needed hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars was just a fluke, is all. Nothing to be worried about going forward.
