US Steel: Solid as They Come

With all the talk of recession, of manipulation in the financial markets, of hedge funds short selling the brokers and of oil hovering around all time highs, sometimes it seems that investors get too caught up in the fast paced world of Wall Street. Sometimes people forget about the "old-timers," the companies that are responsible for making Wall Street what it is today. Companies that saw the Great Depression come and go, saw two world wars pass and saw times when titans like J. Pierpont Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Charles Schwab, and so many other notables ruled the Street.

Perhaps I'm just being a little nostalgic for a simpler, more gentlemanly time, but it just seems like today's Wall Street players, people like Vikram Pandit, Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein and Jeffrey Immelt can't quite stand up to the caliber of their predecessors. I'm not doubting the intelligence of these individuals nor do I mean to diminish their accomplishments, but what I am saying is that I think they're caught up in a Wall Street that just over-complicates things.