In Greed We Trust

Patricia Piccinini, The Young Family, 2002-3, silicon, acrylic, human hair, leather, timber

I know this isn't about art, but you can always just skip it if you want.

I never understood why individual Wall Street brokers didn't  take wild financial risks in the past. I mean what changed in the last 40 years? This article by William Cohan explains some of it, and offers some good solutions.

Make Wall Street Risk It All - NYTimes.com:
"... The change occurred when Wall Street firms stopped being partnerships, in which every partner put his full wealth on the line every day, and became corporations, which put the risks on their shareholders and creditors."

"... To my mind, its central feature should be that each of the top 100 executives at Wall Street’s remaining “systemically important” firms be personally liable for the risks they take. Not just their unexercised stock options or restricted stock, but every asset they have in their possession: from their cars to their fancy homes to their bulging bank accounts. The days of privatizing the profits for Wall Street and socializing the risks must end. As radical as this sounds, in truth it would be no different from when — before 1970 — Wall Street was a series of private partnerships."