It's troubling that a comment like this has to be buried deep in a thread about religion, Platonic ideals, might-makes-right, higher-order thought, and the nature of morality --- most of it stipulating Goldman is evil.

In an ideal scenario that is what would happen. Unfortunately the invisible hand of adam is now tied behind his back. When 2008-2009 happened I was mildly optimistic that a new kind of finance firm would emerge - one which would use technology more intelligently, have a lower cost structure by virtue of having no bad assets on their books and one that would accept lower margins in order to make a headstart against established firms. In a well functioning market that is what would have happened - established players who got it wrong would have gone out of business leaving room for newer younger firms to spring up and do things in a better way. I still cannot place my finger on what exactly broke but the deadwood does not seem to burn in forest fires anymore.