Former investment banker William Cohan has emerged as one of the more incisive critics of all that ails Wall Street by dint of his book "Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World," and his trenchant commentary in Bloomberg and other venues. Some have noted that former investment bankers in general tend to be the most critical of their former industry. We'll leave that one for you to mull over.

We'd rather highlight a recent column, in which Cohan he suggests three cures for the "moral rot" that he thinks still pervades Wall Street.

• Revamp the bonus culture. "We could start by creating a new security that represents the entire net worth of the top 100 executives at the remaining Wall Street companies. These people decide what business lines to be in, how to deploy capital, who to promote and how much to pay. This new security would be at the bottom of the corporate capital structure -- below corporate debt and shareholder's equity -- and would be the first asset to be wiped out if the company performs poorly. This would ensure that today's Masters of the Universe are focused on the risks their businesses are taking." Dealbreaker suggests this is a really bad idea. But what do you think?
• Close the casino. In the old days, the main show on Wall Street was investment banking. Today, it's all about sales and trading. Cohan would like banks to "return to being the boring, pre- Enron-style utilities that provided capital to clients who needed to expand plants and equipment or hire new employees. They could also provide advice on corporate mergers or asset management. A new version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment banking from commercial banking, should be implemented. At the very least, cheap financing from the Fed should no longer be used to subsidize risk-taking. The business models of companies such as Lazard, Greenhill and Evercore Partners should be emulated." We are seeing signs that the banking side is on the rise, though this could be temporary.
• Cut Wall Street pay in half. "The compensation is obscene and unjustified, especially now that almost every company is publicly traded. What other publicly traded businesses pay out to their employees between 50 and 60 cents of every dollar of revenue generated? None. Do these companies exist for the benefit of the people who work there or for the benefit of their shareholders and creditors?" Well put.

These are provocative prescriptions. What do you think? -Jim