I spent over 20years on Bay St, a big chunk of it dealing with institutions: Investment councilors, Insurances companies, and trust companies. The people with whom I dealt were tightly held to constraints that governed the types of businesses they could invest in, and these people, charged with the responsibility of investing on behalf of others, took, and still take their responsibility very seriously.
Where the astonishing level of malfeasance has taken place in the financial industry has been in the corporate finance space that deals with the fixed-income and attached derivative industry in Canada, and the mortgage lending industry in the US. This is not news. The investment bankers involved have always been paid on profits, and that area of the business represents the final frontier of the industry. It has never been heavily regulated, and the players you're up against are some brilliant individuals. They have stolen from the "Common Man" more times than you know, and under circumstances that most people would have to work for years to understand.
They're not the only industry to have ever done so, and yes, some of them should be in jail.
That said, the protest we see today is so fragmented, and so diluted, that to me, it seems all but pointless.
Now, back to the real issue at hand. In two weeks I'll be back up in Georgian Bay. I'm gonna stop off to see that real good guy who runs Mactier Bait and Tackle, and buy the biggest minnows he has.
Do you think I'll be dealing with turnover by then?
PS,
the Feds pledged and quietly lent about $100 billion to Canadian chartered banks from 2008 through 2010. It's all been paid back.