Wolf of Wall Street is a whitewash: Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio make a movie with nothing to say about today's problems.

Wolf of Wall Street is a whitewash: Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio make a movie with nothing to say about today's problems.: Still, even here by focusing on cases of egregious criminal fraud the movie elides the real scandal, which, as is often the case, is about what's legal. If you have a 401(k) plan through your employer or an IRA or other investment account through your bank, the financial institution may try to set you up with a "financial adviser" to help steer your investment decision-making. This person will claim to be giving you advice in your own interest but in fact is under no legal or professional obligation to advance your interests. His real job is to steer you into high fee products that are lucrative for his employer. This is not criminal fraud that the FBI will investigate. It's not a civil offense that the SEC will investigate. It's not illegal. The Labor Department tried to change the rule and impose a fiduciary standard at least for employer-sponsored plans but congress stepped in to tell them no. You're never going to have a world without some sociopaths breaking the rules (read Josh Levin's amazing reporting for a spectacular example) but what we have is a world where congress steps in to make sure that deliberately peddling bad advice to middle-class savers isn't against the rules.