Wall Street & Markets

Wait! Wait! You mean it’s not all the bankers’ fault?

By Justin Fox | July 7, 2009 | +

The indispensable Epicurean Dealmaker—whom I would surely hire if (a) I were in need of an investment banker and (2) I could figure out who he is—makes a rare defense of his kind:

I stick by my assertion that we did not create the huge global demand for riskless returns that is at the root of our current predicament. Investment bankers did not force anyone to buy toxic securities or execute stupid M&A deals. They did not have fiduciary duties to the shareholders and stakeholders of the pension funds, hedge funds, and corporations who did do those deals: the management of those entities did. And, as fiduciaries, these are the people with whom the buck stops. These are the people who have to say, “Wait a minute, gravity hasn’t been repealed; return cannot be earned without risk. No thank you, Mr. Investment Banker. Piss off.” Many–way too many–did not. Piggy, piggy, piggy.

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  • curmudgeon57

    Well, I guess that lets the investment bankers off scot free. Bond salesmen have no fiduciary duty (I presume he means in a narrow legal sense) to sell something that actually has value; it’s the customer’s fault for buying it.
    -
    True, insofar as the argument goes. But if I were the Epicurean Dealmaker, I don’t think I would be able to sleep at night living my life by that philosophy.

  • tc125231

    This is comparable to saying drug dealers don’t make perople do drugs.

    While true, it hardly constitutes a character reference.

  • 27rocketpants

    I dig the Home Alone reference, quite old school.

    Unless your (a) point followed by (2) was a mistake, in which case I’m thoroughly amused.

  • Justin Fox

    @27rocketpants: It was intentional, but I had no idea it was a Home Alone reference. I was thinking more along the lines of Car Talk. The Magliozzis (or at least one of ‘em) do that a lot, don’t they?

  • curmudgeon57

    @Justin and rp: just to date myself, I thought it was a reference to the play Anyone Can Whistle (with the late lamented Lee Remick), where there were two lines, A and 1, both of which had equal priority.

  • http://www.abnormalreturns.com/2009/07/wednesday-links-simple-signals/ Wednesday links: simple signals Abnormal Returns

    [...] “huge demand for riskless returns” was at the heart of the current crisis.  (Curious Capitalist via Epicurean [...]

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