<p>“Wall street has innovated its way out of every single debacle or obstacle thrown in its way to higher profits before.”</p>
<p>LOL. You call getting bailed out by the government innovation? Yes, profits are starting to come back to Wall Street. And bonuses too. Remember that many of the bonuses in the past few years were to reward short-term behavior that turned out to be reckless and contributed to driving our economy into the ground. Is this the fruit you’re talking about? Let’s see if they can get bailed out again after they create the next round of obscure products with no value. </p>
<p>Back to the topic, I think the kid in the article is crazy to pass up a job opportunity. And his parents are enabling him by not requiring him to start living independently. Getting in the door is important. Things are not normal now. A history major can’t expect to float into doing what he or she wants at a high rate of pay. This kid is spoiled. </p>
<p>Regarding Ivies, wow this discussion is getting tiring. Many years of arguing this on CC. Yes, it give you a bit of a brand name advantage. A “smart stamp.” But there are plenty of smart and motivated kids in non ivies and they go on to do just as well or better. You can’t compare the avg Joe in a non elite school to a Harvard grad (although sometimes even the avg joe DOES do better). Compare the top grads in the non-elite schools with the Ivies. Other than having to deal with elitists who place value on name brands and other surface characteristics, it’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>Good post!! The fact of the matter is, though, many Wall Street institutions are not being regulated. For example, hedge funds. I just finished reading ‘The Big Short’ by Michael Lewis. The same guy who wrote ‘Liars Poker’. I think this sort of thing will keep happening. Michael Lewis says that large bonuses are part of Wall Street’s DNA and cannot be wiped out, no matter what. Even with Govt. regulations. Wall Street firms will find a way to reward the guy who makes money in the short term, no matter that the money is on commissions on selling risky and stupid mortgage bonds on risky subprime loans, or on CDOs of the same nature. There will be another crisis in 5-10 years, if not sooner. Just digressing though. I totally agree with toneranger.</p>
<p>I personally would have thrown the kid out of the house if he rejected a job offer that paid 40k because it was “beneath him”. I would help him out, however, if he took the job offer and needed money for something else (e.g living in a high cost of living area). </p>
<p>My son graduated from Swarthmore in 2008 and had trouble finding a job. He did get one eventually and made not much money at it. I’ve helped him out because of this, but I would not if he just sat around waiting for the perfect job to come along. He is going back to grad school and in the Fall and thankfully I don’t have to pay for it. I am hoping 2012 and beyond will look better for these kids.</p>
<p>Lets see… we have had 2 decades of relatively continuous robust growth. Keep in mind derivatives fueled the growth in a 90’s, not detracting from it.</p>
<p>The dotcom bubble only affect a small part of the economy- the tech industry. Thus the dotcom bubble burst was not very significant (if you didnt own tech stocks).</p>
<p>2 decades of robust growth for less than 2 years of recession and you are complaining??? Geez its hard to believe how short term people think… I think we all owe the greedy Ibankers a standing ovation.</p>
<p>@toneranger, well if you really want to get technical, lets look at all the governmental aid handed out to private citizen. By your definition, getting a handout from the government has a negative connotation. That just includes about everyone here. Raise your hand if you benefit from a national army, national parks, social security (or going to be), medicaid/medicare, or any other service provided by the government. Most of us get more back from the government than we pay in (the rich pay most of our taxes). I count 100% of people here.</p>
<p>You aren’t looking for a summer job, aren’t you?</p>
<p>Back to the OP- I did send off a rather annoyed letter to the editor about the integrity of journalism. This was certainly not a balanced article.</p>
<p>I sometimes don’t even know what the American Dream is. I can’t even think about what it’s going to be like when I have a chance to <em>own</em> a house. All I want to security and stability in my life. Maybe we all just have different ideas of what an American Dream is and I’m sure that the concept changes as we age and situations evolve over time.</p>
<p>I have a paid summer internship at a company.
Regardless of economic enviroment, its all about networking. Time to hit up those cocktail parties.</p>
<p>Biotech. I do lab work. You’d be surprised how much time is wasted waiting around for a North Blot. Block… wait 20 minutes, wash, wait 5 minutes, wash wait 5 minutes, run Gel, 1 hour wait. As long as the boss thinks im reading Science or Nature articles on Jstor, Im golden.</p>
<p>My parents bring me to parties and i try to socialize and impress the undoubtedly important doctors, lawyers, and professors (still havent met an investment banker, guess he is too busy banking $$$$).</p>
<p>@jasonInNY, imho, I don’t know if what you call “financial innovation” really was innovation or not. I have been in the financial industry for 15 years now. I work at a hedge fund. So I’d say I do know a bit about this stuff.</p>
<p>I recommend you read ‘The Big Short’ by Michael Lewis. Some of the things done at Ibanks from 2002-2007, 2008 was pretty stupid. Although Moody’s, Fitch etc. also contributed to the stupidity by rating the CDOs whose underlyings were risky subprime mortgages as triple A. Those ‘synthetic’ CDOs floating around at the time - they were more (in volume) than the actual value of the subprime mortgages, resulting in the Govt. having to bailout to the tune of so many billions. I don’t know if that is financial innovation. The credit default swaps - true they help a company manage risk. But when they are simply used as instruments for betting as in a casino - I am not sure how that was innovation. Especially when we had to bail out AIG to the tune of $180 billion for taking the other side of the bets. When AIG bet so much more than it’s own company’s value that those mortgages would not go sour.</p>
<p>Just imho. And I think the harm done is more than just 2 years of recession. There could be a double-dip recession now. Not to mention 10 million jobs lost, so many people thrown out of their houses. This would affect your life in a big way. Not us oldies on the forum as much as young people like you.</p>
<p>WoooHooo! I make slightly MORE than the $40,000 noted in the article…and I’ve been working for 20+ years in higher ed! And raising 2 kids as well.<br>
he should have taken the job. Start somewhere & go up from there. & quit complaining.</p>
<p>well i really dont think its 10 million jobs lost. During the good years, some people were hired when they really were not qualified. In reality, i think we lost like 5-7million jobs. We were below target unemployment rate.</p>
<p>@jaonInNY, we could agree to disagree but I think jobs lost is more than 10 million. That is a conservative estimate of what I see in many reports daily. Whether the people qualified or not, they still lost their jobs. And 9.5% unemployment is not something you can say is fine. It isn’t. We will see the effects of this crisis for years to come. </p>
<p>I still think you should read ‘The Big Short’ or ‘The greatest Trade Ever’ to hear about the so-called financial innovations. I do know that the large bank I worked for, had a LOT of people working in Structured Finance (aka working on CDOs, Credit Default Swaps). The bank was making tons of money at the time (2005, 2006, early 2007). A lot of what they did was just unethical but they did not break any laws.</p>
<p>jaonInNY, I think one summer you should live somewhere in middle-class America. I live in a fairly wealthy neighborhood in Boston and I spent a summer in Houlton, Maine and one summer I lived in Dorchester (one of the worst neighborhoods in Boston) and it was a great life experience. Life is more about being a successful doctor, lawyer, professor, or investment banker and making tons of $$.</p>
<p>Umm the economy definitely lost somewhere around 10 million jobs, considering the labor force is around 150 million people and unemployment is now 9.5%. It was at like 3-4% before crisis (below target unemployment- which means Uhhh Ohhh). I count around 10 million jobs lost. I did not produce the 10 million figure. A previous post provided this number. If you are going to attack the number, dont quote me, quote the previous posters.</p>
<p>And i’ll stick in my upper middle class suburb of NYC thank you. Smart upper middle class kids do productive things in the summer (think internships, shadowing, research, writing up Intel/Siemens, and writing essays).</p>
<p>Heh Pierre don’t knock Dorchester that’s what I could AFFORD when I was 21, it’s on the red line and goes all the way to Cambridge (or at least it used to).</p>
(think internships, shadowing, research, writing up Intel/Siemens, and writing essays).</p>