Is Investment Banking Immoral?

<p>I haven't given this much thought until now that a friend talked to me about it since he was an intern at Deutsche bank for a while. I haven't really researched it either but I'll say what's on my mind anyways. So I personally got into NYU Stern, #2 finance school in the US according to USNews (lol) and going there next year. I wanna study finance and become an investment banker so I think I'm on the right path. But I mean, in that industry, you're going to have to be ruthless to make money. You're probably going to have to cause lower and middle-class people to lose out on their savings and so on. But I'm a moral guy and if I'm rich I want to give my money back. But I don't want to make that money illegitimately. IDK much about investment banking tbh. but anyways in your opinion, is it an immoral, dishonest, soul-crushing and ruthless profession?</p>

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<p>take a seat
relax
think a little</p>

<p>then</p>

<p>please tell us how an Investment Banker would accomplish the above</p>

<p>It’s an inherently greedy profession, which makes it immoral on some level.</p>

<p>I agree that environmentalists are inherently greedy, imposing their self-righteous puritanism on industry and agriculture such that low and middle class people remain unemployed (because businesses can’t grow). More low and middle class people have had their lives and prospects ruined by aggressive environmentalism than by any greedy investment bankers.</p>

<p>Jamie, say a bank buys a million shares of a stock. price goes up. family buys that stock as they see it’s rising. right at that moment, the company dumps all its stock. the price goes down by half. family loses half their life savings.</p>

<p>well i’m not really sure to be quite honest, i was hoping you guys could give me examples. i want to contribute to society not take away from it lol</p>

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Whether or not this is true does not not matter. I can assure you that investment banks are higher up on the “most despised industry” list than environmentalism.</p>

<p>Much of what investment bankers do is a legitimate, and necessary function. For example:</p>

<p>What is immoral about raising funds from investors, and investing that money in the businesses of the future, such as the next Apple?</p>

<p>What is immoral about taking over a company that has lethargic and lazy management, and making that company more productive and efficient?</p>

<p>Was it immoral to lay off all the “horse and buggy” workers, when cars were invented?</p>

<p>Or to cut newspaper employees, now that we have the internet?</p>

<p>Or to fire toll booth workers, now that we have electronic toll taking?</p>

<p>I would advise you to stop listening to those anti-one percenters. The fact that there are abuses on Wall Street does not mean capitalism is still not the best system.</p>

<p>Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water.</p>

<p>I would say try and get into investment banking. You can always leave it if you find it immoral.</p>

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<p>Noldi, based on the very silly response above, my guess is that what you are saying is that you really don’t know much about whether Investment Bankers are immoral or not.</p>

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<p>very well said</p>

<p>Watched too many movies.</p>

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<p>how very true</p>

<p>I hope you enjoy lots of hours at the job .My husband’s biggest regret is not being home a lot while our 4 kids grew up . Now he wants grandkids more than I do !! PS-He was an investment banker .</p>

<p>lulz… are you thinking about traders? Anyways, if some family invested their life savings in one stock, that’s a stupid move.</p>

<p>“is investment banking immoral?”</p>

<p>Nope.</p>

<p>On to bigger and better things.</p>

<p>okie doke.</p>

<p>hmm i was wondering if you guys could give me some information about being a trader (salary, lifestyle, etc)</p>

<p>^^Hard to say what it will be like in 4+ years from now when you graduate. Things are really changing at the moment.</p>

<p>In the past, if you were good, you could earn beau coup amounts of money. But 2008 and regulation occurred.</p>

<p>money (or the love of money) is the root of all evil ;-)</p>

<p>Banking itself isn’t immoral. Don’t let the Keynesian Economics driven liberals get to your head. Without Investment bankers, there would be no Apple, no Microsoft, no Google, nothing. It takes millions of dollars to start up a business like that. Someone has to put up that money. Someone has to make the transactions between the client and the investor. The Investment Banker is essentially the Middleman. Like at a Car dealership. The sales person is the middleman between the dealership and the customer. Yes, some of the sales people are crooks, but are you going to label all of them as immoral, just because of a few bad schmucks? But yeah, I’m scared of this Dodd-Frank Bill. The same Senators that created the housing mess by forcing banks into selling subprime mortgages by strong-arming them, now want to “kill” the financial industry.</p>

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The financial industry would have been killed if it had not been bailed out essentially.</p>

<p>If it had not been for the Government and GSE’s forcing Subprime loans though, the domino effect that the housing crisis had might not have happened.</p>