An ingratiating, indulgent tone lollops into the narrative whenever it settles on this woman, the story' s prime mover, if not its prime focus.

And while he should have known better than provide an opportunity for obsequious and self-righteous compassion, his remark did point to a fundamental truth of investing.

The idea here is that they could have helped their careers by going along to get along.

Tynan bent too much to current hip opinion, he thought.

So for all their efforts -- and kowtowing -- this is likely to remain one tough market Wall Street firms.