Much as it might like to, the public cannot possibly invest in big security underwriting houses like Morgan, Stanley & Co., Kuhn, Loeb & Co. or Lehman Brothers.
They are, of course, strictly private affairs. The only top-flight underwriters with stock outstanding in public hands are First Boston Corp. and Bancamerica-Blair Corp.
In volume of business First Boston is the biggest underwriter of them all. Stemming from the divorced securities affiliate of Boston's First National Bank and the old Chase Harris Forbes organization, First Boston Corp.
last year originated or participated in bond or...