I am, in many ways, ashamed of my career choice even though I knew a lot of regular, hard-working guys and gals who never made a hundred mill a year (back in my day, we did very well, but nothing like today).
Also, my opinion is only an opinion and a dated one at that.
I will certainly take your POV under consideration and adjust my outlook accordingly.
Just on the news today and yesterday was that people have a very low opinion of Wall Street. Worse than for politicians. You were an honorable person there and so were others you knew. But I have to separate that from the entire “industry” and what they did with their hallowed swaps and derivatives. These “innovative instruments” were supposed to “hedge against risk” but instead they blew up the financial system . And then you all got bailed out for doing that. And are getting new bonuses after the fact
So I agree with Paul Volcker completely
The old way was better....
Arcane OTC derivatives should be outlawed or traded transparently and regulated. As of now they are traded in the dark same as before. You mentioned futures before. Those are publicly traded out in the open unlike most derivatives
I blame Wall Street 60%. They made the real estate bubble 20x worse by securitizing cruddy mortgages then betting on them with swaps
I blame the Federal Reserve a lot for its low interest rate policy
Congress gets blame for repealing Glass Steagel and passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000