You're taking that quote WAY out of context. That was an ethnic-Chinese judge criticizing the specific phrase, and preferring that "ethics wall" be used instead.
'He maintained that the "continued use of the term would be insensitive to the ethnic identity of the many persons of Chinese descent"'
The article mentions, but does not specifically name, regulations implemented after the 1929 stock crash; it also specifically names Title V of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The SEC is responsible for the enforcing the provisions of the latter.
> then picked up and used without question or explanation by courts and commentators
This indicates (and was also said) that the term has no lawful basis; it is industry cargo cultism that had been copied around without basis for years.
I'm having trouble visualizing such a wall. Is a wall referenced? Or is just a metaphor for some vague rules that may or may not be followed? Is there a turnkey fire/Chinese wall product on the market?
it works just like a industrial grade router firewall - the router is connected to a gas main, which directs a stream of gas over the back the of router where the rj45s go into, and a flame continuously burns any nasty hackers attempting to hack into your system.
home router systems don't have such a feature.
edit: matt levine used to work at goldman and he posted a piece that has a description of how goldman's multiple chinese wall systems works:
> Nor will [the research analysts] get any hearty back-slaps and high-fives from the bankers, because any banker who walked onto a research floor would be vaporized by powerful lasers long before he could raise his hand for a high-five.
> Remember, bankers can't just call up analysts. Their phones would explode.
OK, so what I gathered from that article is that it is super illegal for researchers to talk to bankers. So much so that they cannot call or email each other over official company channels, but if they do want to talk, they can just step outside the office and use their cell phones.
The wall sounds as effective as LIBOR's blind auctions.
yup. obviously there are limitations. how do you even plan to 100% restrict that information? i guess you can lock up the research analysts and bankers in monitored cells after work...
'He maintained that the "continued use of the term would be insensitive to the ethnic identity of the many persons of Chinese descent"'
The article mentions, but does not specifically name, regulations implemented after the 1929 stock crash; it also specifically names Title V of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The SEC is responsible for the enforcing the provisions of the latter.