Wall Street firm part of the solution, not the problem

Copied by Yulun Hung
Written by Garett Sloane

Wall Street is being vilified for leading the world to financial ruin, but from those same doomed streets one company hopes to play the savior.

On March 31, the Wall Street company SecondMarket is set to open the trading floodgates on “toxic assets” that are dragging down banks and their ability to lend.

“We really are part of the solution,” said Barry Silbert, CEO of SecondMarket. “The stuff that is clogging up our system right now, it’s pretty common for a commentator or an expert to say, ‘If only a market existed.’ And from that perspective we are becoming [that market], and so we are going to help provide clarity on pricing. We are going to help unclog the system.”

The “stuff” in the system is the toxic assets — or mortgage-backed securities — that have proved hard to price and sell, partly because there is no transparent market to trade them. Uncle Sam owns plenty of the assets thanks to the financial bailout.

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