he was on the citicorp board. and in 1998, sandy proposed to john reed in a hotel room here in d.c., when they were here for a business council meeting, let's merge our two companies, which was a totally audacious, unbelievable idea. john deutsch was on the board of citicorp, and when john reed and sandy weill ultimately fought with each other over who would control citigroup in the year 2000, john deutsch was a supporter of john reed. but sandy won. c-span: which person in this picture is john reed, the one right there? >> guest: yes, that one. c-span: and where is he today? >> guest: he's very happy out of the company. i mean, he lost a bruising battle to sandy. there was a boardroom showdown in 2000, and he lost. he thought that sandy had promised the two of them would merge their companies and leave together. john reed was ready to retire and sandy wasn't. sandy outmaneuvered him the entire time. john reed today has a house in the south of france, and he teaches some and speaks, and he's very happy. he sold ci

at that time a man called jack grubman at citicorp told the world that, quote, what others called a conflict he called dissynergy. that same attitude was prevalent last week when there was another symptomatic moment. at a critical point in last week's goldman's hearing, senator susan collins asked a panel of goldman executives, quote, did they have a my -- fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their clients? they were sort of stumped, gave halting answers, but one did say he did believe we have a duty to serve our clients. now, whatever he meant by that, the correct answer is simple and unambiguous. except in a very few states like california, brokered dealers owe no fiduciary duty, no general fiduciary duty to their clients. that defines the problem, and that makes possible the continuation of serious conflicts of interest. what brokers today owe is a much lesser dilute standard set forth in something called the suitability rule. the suitability rule is passed not by congress, not by the sec, but by with self-regulatory bodies that began with the stock exchange and the nasd and it'