Wall Street's chapter of shame and humiliation

THE news that ten of Wall Street's biggest investment firms had agreed to pay US$1.4bil in penalties and restitution to settle charges by US regulators that their analysts regularly skewed their research to benefit a few privileged clients at the expense of smaller investors must be cold comfort to millions of individual investors who lost fortunes in relying on such tainted research. 

Of the money to be forked out, only US$387mil goes to restitution for investors who have been harmed, while US$432.5mil will be used to finance independent research and US$80mil to pay for investor education.