Wall Street banksters are known to hire bright, young Ivy League graduates and working them like dogs by holding out the prospect of great riches for the relative few who rise to the top of the heap. They don't need to have studied business or economics; any Ivy League degree will do. After many years of observing this hiring model, I'm beginning to see a real bankruptcy of economic understanding on the part of even the more successful Wall Streeters.Early this week, I met with a research analyst who worked for Bear Stearns. He has obviously moved on. What struck me during our conversation, though, was that when I pointed out to him that M2 nsa money supply was now growing over the last three months at an annualized rate of 17%, he asked me, "How exactly does that work, can the Fed just create any amount of money they want?" When I said, "Yes," he seemed fascinated by this fact and I had to explain to him how Fed open market operations work. What does he research, that he didn't know this? Chemical stocks? No. Biotech stocks? No.
He's researches bank stocks.
That's awesome. But what about the guy in my econ PhD class who told the provost (during the unionization effort of the NYU grad students) that NYU should be able to give breaks on student housing without cutting stipends, because NYU owns the buildings and so it wouldn't cost them anything to cut the rent?
ReplyDeleteWell, if he got a job on Wall Street it proves the point.
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