Roy Oppenheim’s commentary was originally published on Yahoo! Homes and is being redistributed on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.
A long time ago I left Wall Street for Main Street. It is a decision that I have never regretted. Both of the law firms I worked for, before my wife and I founded our own law firm, banked on the success of Wall Street’s largest banks.
Even back in the late ’80s, when Wall Street still had a certain level of prestige, I felt increasingly uncomfortable hitching my future success on that wagon.
Wall Street may have been an exciting place for a young lawyer, but leaving it allowed me to have the life that I was looking for and have a clear conscience at the same time.
And those feelings, which drove me to set up permanent residence on Main Street U.S.A, are no longer mine alone.
And that’s a good thing for our economy and our housing market. Because it is Main Street that will lead our economy back to greatness.
Confidence in Wall Street is eroding at a rapid pace, and distrust in the big banks isn’t just the domain of Occupy protesters or liberal politicians anymore.
The truth is that it is impossible to read the business section of any major newspaper or website without finding another glaring example of hubris or incompetence.
Jamie Dimon wishes that JP Morgan’s recent trading loss was only $2 billion. The Libor bid-rigging scandal just claimed the chairman of Barclays, and now several U.S. banks are being investigated for similar manipulation of interest rates.
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