wilmott.com

Anyone read this? Basically just confirms that all the problems that existed in the city pre-2008 are still alive and kicking. He interviewed 200 people for the book, however, the bit that caught my eye was his talk with a "cold fish headhunter". Some of the quotes sounded suspiciously like our own DominicConnor. So Dominic, care to come clean?

JL is an Amsterdammer.Quote The more he witnessed, the less he understood, and he became increasingly aware of the yawning gap between what he saw on the ground and what was later reported in the media.

There's an obvious answer to fix that though, and basically all of the problems in the book. You need to get rid of moral hazard. The people taking the risks must bear the costs of failure. To put it into Taleb's words, "skin in the game". I think as soon as you fixed that people would be more willing to help each other and build proper team spirit as well as loyalty. Funny you mention how awful their lives are outrun - for me the exaggeration of that aspect was the worst part of the book. The author makes it sound as if this culture is unique to banking. I'm afraid it exists in practically every graduate job. I know plenty of people working 8-8 with the occasional all nighter (events management, for instance) who get paid 20k a year. That's the life that beholds History graduates. I know others who work in PR with the same, but on even less money (15k). They can get let go at a moment's notice and often don't even have permanent contracts in the first place. At least in banking you can make 3x+ the average wage from year 1 to compensate for that.