I did work for JPM & MS several years back, nothing major, but I got to see quite a lot and I will leave it at that. But most of my knowledge comes from actually dealing with IBs, particularly Goldman, in certain emerging markets. Word gets around in the finance industry of NYC, they are considered utter scumbags for a reason. Yeah, they did not want AIG to be bailed out, they were only one of the largest recipients of the bailout funds to AIG via the CDS agreements. And it was only Henry Paulson yelling & demanding bailouts & TARP, against popular opinion. Are the dots that hard to connect or were you one of the special kids back in the day who had to wear a leash whenever there was a family trip? P.S. Probably too complicated for you, but one can just scan headlines over the decade and note the number of controversial articles involving GS, JPM, MS, etc. There has even been slight pushes by some SEC officials for inquiries into their "secretive" prop desk for suspicion of insider trading and front running customer order flow. Of course, that is the most heat those operations ever got. I wonder why.