Follow Up: Talk Amongst Yourselves: Governmental .... Effectiveness??

(specifically ... the part about the likely impact of financial industry regulatory reform)

In a recent blog post, I said:

Financial Institutions will once again be lobotomized. Divided into two classes:
- Utilities (aka retail banking)
- Casinos (aka everything else)

Utilities" are done for as a for-profit enterprise. Just like Amtrak and Con Ed, they will require permanent and heavy subsidy verging on nationalization to survive the tonnage of regulations which will be piled on.

"Casinos" will have to escape to the Bahamas, Monaco, or Indian reservations. I would not be surprised to see these firms further subdivided into firms that are allowed to play with other peoples' money ("brokerages") and those playing with their own money ("proprietary dealers").

Well ... the pudding of proof is starting to pour in ... even without the fancy new regulations:

1. Anglo Irish Bank will be split into a "good bank"which will retain only deposits, and an "asset recovery bank" which will run down its loans over time. Leave it to the Irish to invent a casino that always loses. BTW - Seeking Alpha (blog) doesn't think this is the end of the story.
   
2. Everyone's favorite financial institution, Goldman, has now announced that they're following my advice (at least in the US) by voluntarily winding down slash selling their proprietary equity trading operation called the "principle strategies group." No casinos here, Mr. Regulator, we're just a buncha blue-collar broker-types ... keep mooooving.