At a charity dinner in New York last week, private-equity titan Stephen Schwarzman couldn't resist drawing a parallel between Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive, and his brother, Patrick Moynihan, a deacon and missionary.
"Patrick runs a Catholic boarding school in Haiti," the head of Blackstone Group L.P. told a Waldorf Astoria ballroom packed with the likes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and assorted Wall Street powerbrokers. "Their parents must be so proud to see two of their boys each running an underfunded, nonprofit, organization."
It was a good joke and the luminaries laughed. Even Mr. Moynihan's lips creased into what might be described as a smile.
But outside the gilded confines of the Waldorf, the banking industry is not having much fun.
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