The technology includes live "Level II" quotes and "direct access" software to tap directly into the same flow of orders visible to Nasdaq marketmakers.

FORBES: What Bear Market?

At private firms, where owners are more directly in control, top pay is less visible, but has risen at similar rates.

ECONOMIST: Executive pay

Traditionally, those seeking to create a buzz often target the most visible or publicly known members of a group, assuming that reputation directly leads to influence.

CNN: How to create a buzz: the business lesson for marketers

Directly opposite is a spotlit silver bowl in a tall, transparent case through which is visible a 1768 portrait of Paul Revere (pictured below) by Boston's John Singleton Copley, said to be the first American to paint in oils.

ECONOMIST: Art of the Americas