“It’s been four years (give or take a few days) since the dawn of New Wall Street, born at 1:45 a.m. on September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. That day, which was also the day Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America in a last-minute fire sale, marked the end of an era in Wall Street culture and ushered in a new era marked by squeezed profits, higher regulatory hurdles, and social backlash across the world. But four years later, it’s worth asking: Is anything actually different?

Times columnist Joe Nocera wrote that after the fall of Lehman, “everything changed,” including our common attitude toward debt and our willingness to address income inequality. But skeptical critics like Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of advocacy group Better Markets, say that Wall Street is much the same as it ever was, with big banks still engaging in risky and unethical behavior with impunity, threatening the stability of the U.S. economy…”

Read Kevin Roose’s full article here