MEDIA REVIEWS - August 16-23, 2010

This month's issue of the Journal of Financial Planning includes a couple of nice columns, one on the protocol for your relations with people who have recently lost a loved one, another on how to hire younger advisor employees. But the real fireworks this month is a blockbuster expose by Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi on how Congress chewed up the financial reform bill, and how it's far less protective of the public than it was originally intended to be. Both Republicans and Democrats participated in the watering-down of the measure, and although there is no mention of fiduciary, you get a glimpse of how hard it is to get meaningful consumer protections through Congress in this environment.

It makes for depressing, and very enlightening, reading.