these are the sort of broad statements that make good soundbites but ultimately make no sense. what gambling are they doing and with whose money?

If you dont like the way the banks handle your pension fund by taking 17%
why not invest your pension yourself and see where it gets you.

Its not so easy being an investment banker, like you see he drove out at 6am that means hes been up at least since 5.30 in order to catch the -Asian markets who are about to close and usually stay till very late in the office (when all the IT guys or Pharma workers are already home chilling) watching the American market. It might all look good when thy drive around in all the fancy cars but its not easy !

And its because of those bankers that make up for most of the big banks income and then make it able to hire thousands of workers which makes the jobless count less which makes crime go down which which which

OK good point except it was a rant, and rants do go on and on and on)

Silly Engineers too working in shifts in power plants .. what the hell are they thinking running turbines?

Who needs electricity anyways? Not bankers., that's for sure!

Well I thought we had covered that ground, but to be clear, one simple example is the pension investment and this answers ukal too. Your pension is invested (depending on your country of domicile) by an authorised pension fund, i don`t believe youre allowed to manage your own, and this fund is invested by an individual trading in products supplied by a banker, an investment banker, therefore, the investment banker, whom you have already acknowledged has only a working knowledge of the ingredients that he compiles into the shitpot you call structured product, and he sells it to the person you are trusting with your retirement years. Now am I clear enough?

Well Ukal how was Mars the last two years?

With the general public's money ultimately. Whether it be through shareholders of companies, pension funds or investment vehicles.

The gambling phrase is too general however. "Taking risk" woudl be a better term perhaps ? Whether it is through predicting a future value or financial direction or assisting in a valuation of an IPO that turns out to be off the mark (or on it perhaps) the phrase "gambling" is not meant in the roulette wheel sense, it is meant in the sense of over assessing one's skill in the financial markets.

What might be a better approach is rather than berate society not understanding how it is not the bankers fault, instead explain in laymans terms why an investment banker at the height of the financial boom was still working within their boundaries of safety, because this is what people are not convinced of and where the most understanding is needed.

i'm a bad ambassador and probably not doing any favors for the industry so i'm going to stop here.

but keep in mind that we still are your intellectual, social, and financial betters (which is why we make so much money).

Thank you Doctor Parting Shot, for your final contribution.

Mwahhhaahahaaa! Keep on dreaming. I'm not speaking for myself, but I've met and worked with lots people who are in a league of their own - unfortunately for you, none were bankers... I'll add that I know a fair few bankers working in the city (NY & London) for top companies, mostly Cambridge graduates. While some are undeniably bright, they'd get blown out of the water by others that I've met. (As an anecdote, I'd also point out that the brightest from this peer group actually turned their backs on the banking sector.)

Social as in drinking lots & driving fast cars or social as in contribution to others/society?

If former, maybe, if latter, I refer you to my first answer...

Maybe, but then again, money isn't a motivator for everyone... but I guess that concept doesn't really register with you, does it.

Well, at least we can agree on this point.

__________________
Never let right or wrong get in the way of a good opinion

Oi as being one of those contributors that have explained their case clearly, I would like a retraction at this point before one pulls the ripcord on this thread

I once met a quant that could price a CDO accurately.




...but then I woke up.

Because you can't. As an employee, you are bound to the fund your company chooses.


I like the funny understone that bankers just got corrupt in the last years. Voltaire has some 250 years ago put it to the point already: "If you see a Swiss banker jumping out of a window, follow him, there is sure to be a profit in it."

Nothing new, really.

I fully agree.

Enough of your BS already. Where were the geniuses and the quants and the financial models gurus and your so called top talent when their institutions were falling apart? What were they advising their own institutions? Being a top talent yourself you were probably out to lunch, out on vacation or asleep at the proverbial switch, no?

UBS hat in hand at the US Gov't. AND at the Swiss Gov't.
Citibank hat in hand at.......
Bank of America hat in hand at .....
Merrill Lynch- kaput ( well, forced to sell itself)
Lehman- kaput
Bear Stearns- kaput
AIG- hat in hand..... and will be kaput.
The list goes on and on and you know the names as well as I do.

What were the smart cookies, Harvard grads, working 100 hour a week even on weekends guys/gals doing before the financial world almost collapsed? Where was the top talent then? There were only a couple of hedge fund guys who saw it coming and profited very well thank you very much.

When the times are good, everybody including the "bankers" clerks, secretaries and cleaning lady were getting a bonus. When times are bad the bankers get a bonus, the secretary, what secretary? What clerk? What backoffice workers? They work here??

Now the very same companies and " bankers" want to advise individuals, countries and companies on how to manage their assets/economies etc !!!

"UBS together you & us" come on!!!

Get off your high horse.

It is the bankers that buy all the brown sugar!

Apparently, as I have discovered numerous times, the banker refuses to acknowledge that what he has proposed was in fact optimistic bovine output and prefer to scuttle back under the softly veneered designer desk in which he resides.Shame really, an accceptance that things are not quite so "perfectly dynamic,blue sky thinking,thought grenade prepared terrain" is dissappointing.

fixed that for you

oy its not time for another bash the bankers thread, the agreed limit is one every 7 days, please reopen this thread on friday.

Bash nuclear is however open for business, so please move along there, where ill informed rubbish is allowed to be posted in abundance.

thank you for your understanding

Vultures only gather where the meat is rotting

Matt Taibbi has something interesting to tell you all about how the bankers saved us all during the recent crises

The Real Housewives of Wall Street
Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?