The dirty secret is that regulation makes finance boring and less profitable.
is that really true though? when you take into account the inevitable crashes, dosn't that wipe out the increased profitability? surely it just makes the banks more open to plunder by owners and employers during the good times, a sort of Robert Maxwell school of finance. the more I look, the more modern finance system seems like an elaborate game of three card monte, and we've reached the point where the cards are turned over and we're going to find ourselves the loser because the lady is definitely in the dealers pocket. Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.
Banking is profitable for banker - they earn a lot in the good times, and lose little in the bad ones. Ironically, it might be bad for long term shareholders, but given the short term mentality of everybody, and the idea that what matters is your relative performance rather than the absolute one, fund managers don't lose out.
Thr only shareholders that really lose out are the passive ones - pensions and savings by the middles classes. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes