Interesting piece from the NY mag about the current mood on Wall Street. I am perhaps less inclined to pronounce the beast dead than the article is. Broking in Australia was pronounced dead when fixed rate commissions were abolished in the early 1980′s – it was supposed to be the end of broking yet firms are now larger than they have ever been.
People are very creative when it comes to squeezing the most out of a system particularly when the system is both protected and powerful.