Is Wall Street credibility an issue?

Breakingviews notes that a lot of CEOs should "now help themselves to generous portions of the sanguine words they have uttered over the last few months." Lehman Brothers' Dick Fuld, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and Morgan Stanley's John Mack all publicly suggested that the worst was over. But that hasn't turned out to be the case. Perhaps the optimistic words were justified at the moment, but as of now, such pronouncements have been proved premature. Here's another example. In late 2007, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis uttered a memorable phrase: "I've had all the fun I can stand in investment banking." He wanted to scale back dramatically. As of late, however, the bank has been staffing up, as investment banking revenues have soared to near-record levels. Circumstances can change, people understand that. They've also learned to appropriately discount CEO pronouncements. Trust, but verify.      

For more:
- here's the Breakingviews article

Related Article:
Can Wall Street firms be believed?