Wall St. overhaul doesn't address current crisis

[flashl]

NEW YORK: Everyone on Wall Street, and on Main Street, wants to know one thing: when will this financial crisis end?

So far, despite the U.S. government's efforts, the markets are whispering an answer that no one wants to hear.

...

Stocks keep gyrating. The dollar continues to slide. The credit markets remain unsettled. And traders keep buzzing that Bear Stearns, which was saved from possible bankruptcy by a takeover backed by the Federal Reserve, may not be the last Wall Street bank to run into trouble.

...

"Banks' appetite for risk has totally disappeared," said Peter Gumbel, a mortgage broker in Greenwich, Connecticut. "Regardless of how much the Fed lowers rates, banks just can't price in enough of a premium to want to take a risk on some loans."

...

Part of banks' unwillingness to lend reflects their own weakened condition, analysts say.

IHT

[truedelphi]

1. It's cynical, but part of me figures the money they are keeping on hand is

For their golden parachutes.