Roger Martin in the Washington Post responds to the question: “What does Wall Street have to change to produce better leaders, a different culture and a more long-term focus?“:

Forget about it. Don’t even waste time thinking about it. The purpose of Wall Street firms is to trade value for their own benefit not to build value for the economy either short-term or long-term. While at one point in its history, a non-trivial part of Wall Street’s activity involved financing the growth of American companies, that is now a minor piece of its business. Wall Street is primarily engaged in encouraging individuals and companies to trade value between one another and tolling the parties for the service, and trading against the outside economy for its own account.

A refreshingly candid and accurate assessment. The bums won’t change and it’s foolish to expect it. Wall Street no longer functions as a vehicle for real investment/capital formation. It’s just a big casino and con game.  Many of the participants and their government sponsors need to be in jail.