Home » Blogs » lambert's blog

From the Department of Closing the Barn Door...

Tue, 09/16/2008 - 8:11am — lambert

At the beginning of the year, five investment banks. Now, two. Politico:

No matter who’s elected, the next administration might have a much easier job of watching over the investment banking industry simply because it will be so tiny.

Haw.

Or not.

I remember once reading about the automobile industry in the U.S.S.R., which actually, according to the article, subtracted value from its inputs; the steel and rubber and glass were worth more as raw materials than they were as finished, manufactured Soviet cars.

Given the meltdown we've just had, does anybody know if the investment banking industry has created value over its lifetime? Or is it like the Soviet automobile industry?

»