Elders of Wall St. Favor More Regulation.

[elleng]

Put aside for a moment the populist pressure to regulate banking and trading. Ask the elder statesmen of these industries — giants like George Soros, Nicholas F. Brady, John S. Reed, William H. Donaldson and John C. Bogle — where they stand on regulation, and they will bowl you over with their populism.

They certainly don’t think of themselves as angry Main Streeters. They grew quite wealthy in finance, typically making their fortunes in the ’70s and ’80s when banks and securities firms were considerably more regulated. And now, parting company with the current chieftains, they want more rules.

While the younger generation, very visibly led by Lloyd C. Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, lobbies Congress against such regulation, their spiritual elders support the reform proposed by Paul A. Volcker and, surprisingly, even more restrictions. “I am a believer that the system has gone badly awry and needs massive reform,” said Mr. Bogle, the 80-year-old founder and for many years chief executive of the Vanguard Group, the huge mutual fund company.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/business/17volcker.html?hp

[ChoralScholar]

1. the free market can only be trusted to do one thing:

put another dollar in their pocket by any means necessary. This is why we have to have govt. regulation and unions - to ensure that the profit initiative is not what drives every decision.

Business, by and large, cannot be trusted to take care of the consumer, and cannot be trusted to take care of the worker.