Wall Street Aims to Give Itself a Facelift

Financial types feel they're unfairly 'vilified' in crisis

(NEWSER) - Working on Wall Street used to have glamor to it—but now, saying you work at JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs immediately establishes you as “one of them,” the New York Times reports. Wall Streeters are facing a new pariah status, and many believe they’re taking an unfair share of heat when there’s plenty of blame to go around—to imprudent homeowners, for example. More»

Dissenting Dems, GOP want different changes

(NEWSER) - Senators are scrambling to revive legislation for the financial bailout after its surprise failure in the House yesterday, but must strike the right balance to attract new House votes without driving away initial supporters, Bloomberg reports. House Republicans want an expanded role for the FDIC in the bailout and for the SEC to assess the real value of the troubled securities before the government buys them. More»

It's been a bumper year for BS from the big banks, writes Nomi Prins

(NEWSER) - As Wall Street happily trots off into 2009's sunset, same old bad habits in tow, things aren't looking so hot on Main Street—no matter the crocks the bankers sold us, writes Nomi Prins at AlterNet . Here's some of Wall Street's finest whoppers of the year.

• The economy has improved. "Sure—if you work at Goldman Sachs or had an affair with Tiger Woods," writes Prins. For the rest of us, unemployment is in double digits and next year is looking bleak.

Commissions shrinking as investors turn away from stocks

(NEWSER) - A rising number of stock brokers are abandoning the industry as markets fall and commissions dry up, the Wall Street Journal reports. More brokers have already departed this year than in any of the last 15 years, and experts expect the exodus to continue as investors shift assets out of the market and into safer areas that pay little in commissions. More»

(NEWSER) - During the Great Depression, legend has it a group of Wall Street bankers went to Hollywood to see if it was worth investing in, only to be immediately repulsed by the brazen displays of wealth they saw there. Now that it's the bankers being pilloried for their excesses, writes Neal Gabler in the Boston Globe, it could be argued that the whole economic mess we're in is the result of once-stodgy Wall Street becoming Hollywoodized. More»