E.F. Hutton

Conrad’s cartoon (Feb. 19) depicts the jail cells of Wall Street firms implicated in the insider trading scandals. Part of one cell is shown with the letters “E.F.” captioned above. Most people would assume that this refers to E.F. Hutton & Co., as Hutton is the only major brokerage firm with the initials E.F.

Shame on Conrad. Had he bothered to do his homework, he would have known that none of the more than 17,000 E.F. Hutton employees has been charged with any crime related to insider trading.

Unfortunately, the revelation of this wrongdoing has damaged the credibility of all stockbrokers, the vast majority of whom are honest and sincerely interested in serving the needs of their clients. The bad apples are being removed from the barrel by a justice system that is working affectively under the current body of laws.

JERRY MEISNER

Los Angeles