The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

1. Shame Old Shame Old

We suppose the Securities and Exchange Commission deserves credit for addressing conflicts of interest facing analysts at Wall Street's brokerage houses.

Oh, about as much as our pet chihuahua deserves for reducing the crime rate on the island of Manhattan.

OK, maybe we're being a little too harsh about the rules the SEC approved Wednesday governing analysts' behavior. After all, there has been an awful lot of discussion of the matter in recent weeks (check out TheStreet.com's extensive coverage). ...