We Have Seen the Future and it Looks Like...

After the dust settles, the new Wall Street may end up looking a lot like the old Wall Street.

Speaking at yesterday's Bloomberg News panel discussion on the future of Wall Street, H. Rodgin Cohen, chairman of law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, opined, "the system will look more like what preceded the current environment than many people seem to believe," adding he is "far from convinced there was something inherently wrong with the system."

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein and Lazard Deputy Chairman Gary Parr predicted we'll eventually see between five and eight global institutions, about half of which will be "clear winners."

Rubenstein, meanwhile, is looking east:

Rubenstein said that while Wall Street will likely rebound after the recession, competition probably will emerge from global banks being formed in China and the Middle East as well as from so-called boutique investment banks at home.

'Wall Street will be reshaped,' Rubenstein said. 'People once thought that American brand-name institutions could do no wrong and that if they sold a product, it was a good product, and if they said something was worth a certain value, it was worth a certain value. Now that has changed.'