Jim Grant: "The channel of credit runs through Wall Street"

Finance has moved outside the banking system to the Lehmans and Bears and, yes, the New Centurys of the world. More and more, the channel of credit runs through Wall Street. State and federal examiners still look over the shoulders of their institutional charges, but the rating agencies are the cops who walk the principal beat of supervision.

~ Jim Grant, "Memo to markets: We're on our own," Grant's Interest Rate Observer, March 9, 2007