With the Sifma show set for next week -- cue the stifiling NY humidity -- I can see one topic taking center stage. In this stumbling, sluggish economy, investment firms are looking at risk management like never before. The after-shocks of the mortgage meltdown are still being felt and consultants tell us that new risk management systems will be at the top of today's CIO shopping lists.

All well and good but it begs the question: Will these new risk systems be heeded?

The down-sized traders and portfolio managers lost their jobs not just because they lost tons of money but because they ignored the warnings of their risk managers. The relentless pursuit of alpha led them to endorse some very shaky deals. One wonders if the new risk systems should come with a mild yet unignorable Taser to shock the portfolio manager about to disregard the risk warnings.

Zap!