Cleaning up the sewer on Wall Street

I read in an email alert from Morningstar that:

"The carnage in the financial markets has taken down several pillars of the U.S. financial system, including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, and currently threatens Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs," said analysts at Action Economics.

My reaction: Good riddance! ... and why is it taking so long to take out the remaining two so-called "pillars"??!!

I am not a big fan of big banks, but the self-serving profiteering on Wall Street and their lack of interest in providing decent services to Main Street is a blight on the concept of capitalism. I would much rather see investment banking under the thumb of traditional bankers rather than the pirates we currently have operating on Wall Street. I actually hate to cheer on Chase and Bank of America, et al, but Wall Street really gives me no choice. The terms "investment bank" and "brokerage firm" seem destined for the dustbin of financial history.

I am also not a big fan of short selling let alone naked short selling, but if that is what it takes to obliterate the so-called "pillars" that have been plaguing the financial system for the past decade, so be it! Actually, I would not go that far, but given the reprehensible behavior of investment banks on Wall Street, it is at least tempting.

-- Jack Krupansky