The continuing financial crisis just prompted a response from one person the mutual fund industry probably hoped was long gone by now. On Monday the Washington Post featured a guest column, 'How to Ground the Street," from former New York State governor and attorney general Eliot Spitzer. The bane of fund firms offers a number of criticisms and suggestions. Mutual funds don't a prominent role in his thoughts this time around, but he does reserve one jab for the '40 Act industry, contrasted with a similar piece of praise for hedge funds.

Specifically, Spitzer urges institutional investors -- "in particular mutual funds, pension funds and endowments" -- to "reengage in corporate governance." He adds that private equity firms and hedge funds have provided "the sole challenge to corporate mismangement and poor corporate strategies" in recent years. Of course, given his own history with the mutual fund business, it seems implausible that Spitzer's jab and recommendation will carry much weight with fundsters. 

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