"And I'll take some poetic licence here. Mr. Smith laments "ripping eyeballs out" of "muppet" clients - the decline of "the firm's moral fibre." I believe a crucial facet of what's unfolding is that employees throughout Wall Street, and global finance more generally, are working diligently to extract as much "money" as quickly as possible before the whole thing blows up. It's as reprehensible as it is perfectly rational in light of today's monetary and policymaking environment. In a backdrop where politicians spend as much as they want and central bankers "print" as much as they want - where prudence, fairness and reasonableness have been completely abandoned - of course those working amidst this monetary profligacy will feel perfectly compelled to take as much as they can get. Read monetary history.

"Regrettably, most no longer think in terms of a long-term career judiciously serving the interests of their client-base. Instead, it's dog-eat-dog - everyone working first and foremost for their immediate self-enrichment. Isn't that the way Capitalism is suppose to function? But it's a broken incentive structure - powered by the confluence of ultra-easy "money" slushing about the system today and extraordinary uncertainties darkly clouding the outlook for tomorrow. This ensures a destabilizing short-sighted fixation by Wall Street associates, traders, speculators, investors, business executives and society generally. Greed may or may not be good, but it is certainly an upshot of unsound money.

David Fuller's view I do not disagree with any of this and I have often described the financial industry as amoral, at best, although I am privileged to know a number honourable people within the industry. There is nothing new about the problems described by Tim Price, Doug Nolan and others. From what I have read in terms of market history and seen over the last 45 years, the level of abuses move in broad and irregular cycles, not unlike the markets.

Financial crises are followed by more prudent and stable periods and I believe we are already heading in that direction. It started with corporate governance following 2008 and investors have benefited from the change. There is some evidence of a similar trend in the financial services industry. And who knows, it may be politics next.

We are a clever, albeit flawed, species and 'needs must' is often a catalyst for positive change. I am less interested in fulminating about what has gone wrong, although others are right to remind us of this. The greater individual challenge is to deal with what the system provides and never lose sight of our investment priorities. I remain cautiously optimist about the prospects.