The year was 1907, the place was Wall Street and the man of the hour was J Pierpont Morgan, the banking legend known as "The Organizer" who that year single-handedly pulled the US financial system from the brink of insolvency and helped channel cash to a desperate New York Stock Exchange. Mr Morgan's actions worked like an elixir: he demonstrated he had faith in the market and that the public should too. And so they did.
Fast-forward to December 20, 2002. The place again is Wall Street and the public's confidence is once again in shambles. But this time the man of the hour does not hail from the ranks of Wall Street. This time it is the New York Attorney General, Elliot Spitzer - the man nicknamed "The Enforcer." That day in December, 10 securities firms agreed to pay $1.4bn in penalties and fees to settle charges that Wall Street's best and brightest had sold investors a bill of goods through misleading research. Wall Street's reputation had also taken a tenebrous turn over the IPO spinning scandal and the televised spectacle of senior bankers grilled by Congress over their role in the collapse of Enron. Consider, too, how the stock market has knocked the stuffing out of American investors and it is easy to see why confidence is in the dumpster.
