Over a year ago, before the Wall Street fiasco, I had a conversation with an investment banker at a local cafe I like to frequent. He was just in the process of studying for his CFA exams and one particular course was giving him a great degree of difficulty- it was ethics! Our conversation drifted towards the kinds of deals he was working on and what his role as an investment banker was in these transactions. At a certain point I could resist the temptation no longer and asked him "And what is your value added in these transactions? "Information!" he exclaimed, without even pausing so much as a second to think.

The young banker went on to explain in a pedantic, somewhat patronizing tone that through his circles of connections, and his knowledge of the little loopholes in the process, he could connect those wishing to sell their companies with those wishing to buy them. He would also provide assistance by putting together a team of high level experts needed to traverse the labyrinth of regulations which govern such transactions. As a final note, he then added that his value added was usually far in excess of the fee charged, even thought to those on the street it might not appear that way.

We live in the information age. The average individual has access to far greater information than at any other time in history. Yet despite this ready access to information, the brokers of this world have risen to a position of unparalleled prominence in today society.

An economist will argue that the investment banker adds value by providing a valuable service in addressing the needs created by the imperfect distribution of information in the system. The problem lies in the fact that this 'inefficiency' of the market is the only raison d'etre of the investment bankers, and they lobby hard to preserve it.

Under the guise of protecting the interests of the public the financial system is governed by innumerable regulations. Instead of safeguarding the investor, their only discernable impact is to force all the investors in the market to require the services of gatekeepers such as investment bankers, corporate lawyers and an assortment of other advisors. The great irony is that when the system breaks down under the weight of all these intermediaries, the reflexive response is to add yet another layer of regulation, which only serves to further embed these 'indispensable' individuals in the system.

Now a year on, the crash has passed, the system was saved from collapse, bonuses were paid, and Christmas sales are up from last year. Some might interpret this as proof of the robustness of the economy and the system. Another perspective might be that this is all a setup for the coup de grace soon to come.