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TWST: Dean, you began the discussion — anything you’d add?

Mr. Eberling: Just that from an industry perspective, whether pooling goes away or not won’t change the structural forces at work in both industries. So from that vantage point, we don’t think it matters all that much. Whether or not the pooling of interest going away will clip the level of M&A activity, domestically or globally, is another debate. However, there is interesting academic work that defines the four major waves of M&A activity over the course of the last 100 years, and at no time does that M&A wave change as a result of accounting changes. It does tend to change radically on valuations, and my guess is that as long as the equity markets remain healthy, M&A activity will remain robust. Moreover, given the structural changes taking place in Europe, I don’t think corporate executives are going to care too much about pooling versus purchase, but they will care a lot about the strategic chess match unfolding in their particular industry. And until the stock market retreats enough to radically impair valuations, we believe we’re going to see continued strength in M&A activity.

TWST: Dean, what is A.G. Edwards (NYSE:AGE) doing to rate your recommendation, then?

Mr. Eberling: The stock, because of strategic issues, has languished relative to the group and at one point last year was down better than 40% year on year. This year it’s actually moved higher because of speculation about takeover. We believe the second half of the year could be pretty good, number one. Number two, as investors search the sea for properties that could provide similar — and we can debate similar –- but broad distribution, A.G. Edwards has got to be on the list and the company is definitely moving to change. Now, whether they succeed or not may not matter as long as investors see change, which could be enough to move the stock, and that’s what it boils down to. We believe the second half of the year could be pretty good and the company is feeling the pressure strategically and will make change. Finally, as other stocks leave the group, like PaineWebber, investors will rebalance and this is a name that you can’t go too wrong in. It may not be Goldman Sachs in its cachet, but statistically it’s well run and is swimming in a sea of scarcity.

TWST: The first six months of this year in the market have been a pretty wild ride. What do you expect for the next six months, and were there any lessons you learned that investors might benefit from?

Mr. Eberling: Well, in general, our view of the next 12 months, which I’m assuming is our time frame, is that the backdrop will continue to be relatively good. Retail investors, while they may move in and out of the market as they did in the first half, will generally provide solid overall support. We believe that retail investors will be the fuel for the capital-raising cycle here in the United States and globally. The M&A wave will continue as long as we have high valuations and regardless of whether or not the accounting profession decides to kill pooling. But we also think volatility will be ever-present and increasingly so as we move toward decimalization. Over the next 12 months, global platforms, big platforms that are well run, defined as tight-risk management, tight-cost management, will generally produce a high overall quality of earnings and deserve to trade at premium valuations. And the quality of earnings ultimately will drive the values higher.