Once the foreclosure wheels started turning, said analysts, practices became even shoddier.
Since last year, regulators at the commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers have been looking into analysts' practices.
A proposed amendment on the subject may be attached today to legislation that is actually intended to increase protections for investors by strengthening controls over the nation's accounting system and over stock analysts' practices.
The accusations have put added scrutiny on the supervision of Merrill's research department during the tenure of Mr. Young, and NASD officials made it clear yesterday that they would focus on supervision in their investigation of analysts' practices.
Mr. Pitt said the S.E.C. would coordinate its inquiry with state securities regulators, the New York Stock Exchange and the N.A.S.D. On Wednesday, the North American Securities Administrators Association said that it had formed a multistate panel to study analysts' practices.
As theater, Gates' appearance is being billed as a star turn in a trial that has generated little buzz, taking a distant back seat to the Enron and Arthur Andersen scandals and even to Merrill Lynch 's dispute with the New York attorney general over its analysts' practices.
Justin Gimelstob, a retired pro turned television analyst, practiced with and played against Baker near the beginning of Baker's career.
State regulators are calling the new amendment Wall Street's response to the investigation into analyst practices begun about a year ago by Eliot L. Spitzer, the attorney general of New York.
Gary Trosclair, LCSW, DMA, is a certified Jungian analyst practicing privately in Manhattan and Westchester County, New York.
Most of the analysts who practice Korean Kremlinology seem to expect a rote continuation of the Cult of Kim, as if Jong-un will be unable to escape the genetic clutches of his father and grandfather.
