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Article: Unsettling; Wall Street.(Investigating Wall Street)(investment banks)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 3, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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After months of bargaining, the investigation into investment banks is over
IT HAD, acknowledged one of the participants, all the elements of a bad awards ceremony: pious, self-congratulatory speeches and a lack of surprise. A year-long probe into how Wall Street's leading firms underwrote and recommended lousy stocks during the boom was officially closed on April 28th, with a packed press conference in the basement of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington.
Hundreds of stocks had collapsed; hundreds of billions of dollars had been lost. Someone had to be held accountable. Everyone already knew who would be blamed and what their ...