Morgan Stanley Parsing Purcell

For his first appearance since dropping a depth charge on Morgan Stanley’s management ranks, Phil Purcell was no bright ray of sunshine. In one sense, the investment bank chief executive’s Eeyore-ish performance was comforting. At least it shows he is aware that chasing off a crop of top executives is not good for the morale of a firm whose lifeblood depends on retaining and attracting talented people. His earlier defiance of critics did not make this amply clear. But Purcell’s sobering perform...