The Great Bill Singer throws up his hands
Famed securities industry attorney Bill Singer has had enough:
I believe in the benefits of independent/regional business. I patronize Starbucks but deeply miss the neighborhood coffee shop with all its quirks and characters. I patronize Barnes & Noble but miss the local bookshop where the owner read her titles and knew my preferences.
I miss the mix of mom and pop stores that used to face out upon our streets and avenues, but have now been replaced by a homogenous façade of national chains that repeat every four blocks with numbing regularity.
I miss innovation. I miss the clash of ideas in the marketplace. I miss the differences that add vitality to our lives. For the comfort of sameness and reliability, we have sacrificed choice and sincerity. Wall Street has not been immune to the demand of bigger-is-better. No, Wall Street has been victimized by that imperative in the shape of unwieldy financial services supermarkets and bloated, ineffectual regulators.
This is a sad day for Wall Street. Bill Singer was a tireless advocate for the little guy. And make no mistake: it’s the masses of little guys who serve the people, not the big brokerage firms. But the large brokerage firms have the loudest voices when it comes to regulation.
Indifference, not hate, is the opposite of love. In losing the spirited opposition of Bill Singer, Wall Street has lost a great deal.
Perhaps I am simply too old and too tired to keep tilting at the windmills. Not finding any credible, national trade group to call home; not finding folks willing to work tirelessly with me; not finding any receptivity for meaningful reform within the regulatory community; and not finding any sincerity among politicians to propose sensible legislation to reform Wall Street—I think it’s time for me to follow in the footsteps of Cincinnatus and return to the farm.
In the next few weeks I will populate my blog with my thoughts on issues that endanger Wall Street—for the public investor, for public issuers, for individual brokers, and for brokerage firms. I will try to explain how to best address the issues that I note, and welcome my readers to bombard me with emails and phone calls with your comments, suggestions, and criticisms. I will do my best to respond.
I highly recommend Bill’s blog at rrbdlaw.com.
May 8th, 2008 at
I sympathize w/Mr. Singer’s predicament. There are too many scoundrels and too few heroes in our industry and for that we should all carry the burden of shame. Too few of us are truly passionate about what we do and too many are going along to get along, sad but true. New ideas and a fresh approach are met w/blank stares and the “that’s how things are done” crowd seem to win at every turn. Perhaps I am too cynical but there is a part of me that thinks that an army of one can truly make a difference! Then I run into the soldiers of the army of indifference and I wonder why I bother. I will keep trying but I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not a locomotive preparing to mow me down. God help us.
May 8th, 2008 at
Don’t retire, you are needed. You gave me hope when I so desperately
needed it. We have a lot in common — I tried too so I understand.