Viewpoint: Geoff Colvin
From Fortune: “Wall Street has to change in painful ways. The major firms, gloriously profitable just a few years ago, are not earning their cost of capital. They’re failing...
“Wall Street has to change in painful ways. The major firms, gloriously profitable just a few years ago, are not earning their cost of capital. They’re failing, and everyone seems to agree on their near-term future: lower returns and lower profits. The firms have to get smaller, cut expenses, live less large, pay people less. The glory days are over. But hold on. Wall Street’s glory days are over every 10 years, like clockwork. They were over at the end of the ’70s, after a decade of market stagnation; again at the end of the ’80s, when takeovers and leveraged buyouts faded; at the end of the ’90s, with the dot-com bust; and now with the subprime disaster. Every time, Wall Street comes back in new ways that no one imagined. That pattern is hopeful for the firms. For Barney Frank and the legions of new regulators he helped to create, it’s worrisome.”
Geoff Colvin in Fortune
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Ports reopen after dockworkers halt strike
Speed Read The 36 ports that closed this week, from Maine to Texas, will start reopening today
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - October 4, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - setting aside differences, discussing differences, and more
By The Week US Published
-
How could escalation in the Middle East affect the global economy?
Today's Big Question Oil prices have already risen but wider conflict could see supply chains disrupted more broadly
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Issue of the week: Do high-speed traders rig the market?
feature Wall Street is abuzz over high-frequency trading.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: How Yellen spooked the markets
feature At her first press conference, the new Federal Reserve chair made the mistake of indicating when the Fed would raise interest rates.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Stop calling women ‘bossy’
feature Let’s ban “She’s bossy.” Instead, let’s try, “She has executive leadership skills.”
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: GM’s recall disaster
feature Mary Barra is facing “her first big test” since she took over as GM’s new CEO in January: a recall of more than 1.6 million vehicles.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: Who gets Fannie’s and Freddie’s profits?
feature Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s shareholders want their money back.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: Comcast buying Time Warner Cable
feature Has Comcast won the cable wars?
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: AOL’s million-dollar babies
feature AOL’s “gaffe-prone” CEO, Tim Armstrong, “got in some hot water” last week.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Issue of the week: Why Google unloaded Motorola
feature Three years after shelling out $12.5 billion for Motorola, Google announced its sale to Lenovo Group for $2.9 billion.
By The Week Staff Last updated