Bidding My Time

I know. It hurts. A lot. Clicking those little links to get here and ultimately finding out that finance bitch hasn’t updated her blog in 4+ months. I feel you. Surprisingly, my time at work shifted into warp speed (which, as we all know, is a blessing these days especially around payday). Days and nights of cranking out models, reading purchase and sale agreements, credit agreements, and coming up with ways to get paid severely diluted any concept of time I had.

Of course, this post has a purpose. Throughout the last few years, there have been so many ‘creative’ ways about going to get a finance job. Let’s face it: desperate times call for desperate measures and smart kids do dumb things. Unfortunately with the prevalence and omnipotence of the internet, there is no hiding. And, since it seems like we are in the midst of recruiting for those coveted summer analyst/associate positions, I thought it’d be helpful to aggregate some examples of what you should NOT do. A few examples come to mind:

Aleksey “Impossible is Nothing” Vayner:
Ah, good ol’ Aleksey Vayner. In my recollection, this is the first major application disaster that tore through all the investment banks. Aleksey, in his desperation to ‘stand out’ and have a leg up on his fellow Yalies, decided to put together a video resume detailing outlandish accomplishments and personal attributes. While potentially an interesting (and definitely creative) way to distinguish himself, the backlash was incredible. Within hours upon his submission to an investment bank, his creation became the biggest mockery of resume dropping in the history of banks. If you google his name today, Wikipedia, Dealbook (NY Times), Dealbreaker, Gawker, etc. all have something to say regarding the subject.

In short: please don’t send a video resume. Unless you want a floor full of bankers/traders/admins peeing themselves from laughter.

Jeffrey Chiang
This winner is a newcomer into the scene. Even with all the tales of recruiting mishaps in the past, this UT-Austin ’09 managed to still royally fuck it up. Even having moved to the buyside, I managed to get this e-mail chain from 3 different people at 3 different banks/buy-side shops. While I feel for the kid, it’s not exactly helpful to become the premier definition of the word “idiot” when recruiting season is in full-swing.

Morals of this Story: E-mail leaves a paper trail (which inevitably, some douchebag will forward). Don’t lie on your resume. Wall Street is a small place and is now even smaller given 1) all the recent layoffs and bank collapses/mergers and 2) the obsessive use of e-mail and blackberries.

Mark Nazal
So you’re chugging along at a target school, participating in recruiting season with every other red-blooded male and female on campus (except those granola eating hippie freaks, who, btw, ultimately realize they want to make money a few years down the line and go to b-school). You realize that your GPA isn’t that great, your English skills even worse, and you probably have no shot in hell. Thus, the best option to apply to one of those ‘global’ banks with headquarters outside of the U.S. And, to make sure that you’ve kicked it up ANOTHER NOTCH (- use emeril voice -), you will create a website: “RBC Should Hire Me“. Unfortunately, the website has since been taken down, but those little “cached’ links still provide a modicum of fun.

Punchline: Keep those ethereal, bubbly feelings out of recruiting. Banks want to hire some mercenaries, not some kid who acts like a 7th grade girl professing her love for the popular boy at school.

Random UF Student
This is a toughie and way too much commentary to lay on. Dealbreaker does a fantastic job of presenting on this one. Basically, the bottom line is this: If you bring nothing to the table except a stellar GPA and lines out of a Lifetime movie, you probably shouldn’t be in banking, finance, or any job outside of the mall.

And as always, there are a few sympathizers out there who will comment about how mean/cruel it is to expose these kids, and blah blah blah. Save it. What’s done is done and I’m merely the messenger. I realize that 10 years ago, even if shit like this happened, it would be close to impossible to circulate said blunders with such force and reach. We live in an interesting and very well-connected society whether we like it or not.

Bonus Backlash Redux

I wholeheartedly apologize for my absence in the last few months. I’ve gotten numerous e-mails, posts, etc. which I ignored for the most part. Unfortunately, creative juices (and writing something intelligible and not credit/acquisition related) slows down to crawl when one is busy. A new year calls for a fresh start and I anticipate picking up where I fell off the cliff. I may skip a few stories and steps here and there to try and get to where the current place and time.

The bonus backlash (aka populist outrage) has been in full swing during the past few weeks. It is perpetually fueled by reports and articles in the New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, etc. I even heard Howard Stern commenting on it the other day. To top it all off, the mafioso families of Wall Street were dragged to DC for another round of berating and accusations in front of Congress. I can safely say that Jamie Dimon is my new hero with his piercing blue eyes, wind swept silver locks, and steely demeanor. Blankfein gives a good stink face but Dimon’s bored and “you’re all idiots” demeanor takes the cake.

I found this article by Steven Pearlstein (chief business/economy writer for the Washington Post) pretty straightforward and enlightening. Also pretty gutsy for a paper based out of DC. The article pretty much states the obvious in a very simplistic manner so as to spell it out for the Main Streeters.

Douchebags and Gold Diggers

Oh, New York Times, how you never seek to disappoint me. Look, I get it: meeting guys and/or girls in the City is very difficult. You want some standards and, frankly, there is nothing wrong with that. Girls want guys with money and guys want trophy wives. However, methinks that this event is attracting the D-side of the Manhattan social set (yes, D-side. This does not even warrant a B-side call out). Getting the heavy-set guy who works in back office at Jefferies matched up with the anorexic assistant at Laura Ashley is not exactly translatable into getting a shoutout in Weddings & Celebrations in the Sunday Styles.

1. Does anyone notice that all the ‘men’ interviewed here are between the ages of 24 and 26? They are all analysts and MAYBE 1st year associates (in private equity or otherwise) at the most. What possible sort of ‘banker bombs’ could you be dropping right now? Last I checked, 1st years were just shy of the 6-figure mark.

2. Who are these ‘girls in fashion’? Why do they work for brands that only my grandmother would wear?

3. Ms. Lesya Yanush: In case you haven’t heard, the 30 and over age set is a bit too geriatric for the tastes of these finance guys. Especially when you’re dealing with the rainmaking 1st/2nd/3rd year analysts.

“From my experience, I’ve dated lawyers and doctors and they’re nice; I just prefer finance,” Ms. Yanush said, before applying a fresh gloss of candy-apple-red lipstick in the ladies room. “My girlfriends who are in long-term relationships with finance guys are very happy.”

I think the stumbling block lies in the fact Ms. Yanush still thinks that she’s a 15-year old girl with her BonneBell lipgloss. How much of your friends’ happiness is measured by money?

As for the coveted guest list of said party, I refer my loyal readers to all things Dealbreaker on the matter. Some very interesting discoveries and snarky commentary that should brighten up everyone’s Monday.

The Evil Empire

An interesting read on the Evil Empire (aka Goldman Sachs). It’s fitting that a Russian was caught stealing trading algorithms/codes from GS, no?

I realize the article comes off pretty doomsday-ish and conspiracy theory-esque but an interesting read nonetheless.

GS_Rolling_Stone

*Note, this is an excerpt from the Rolling Stones article dated for circulation for July 9 – 23, 2009. i take no credit for it, just merely wanted to share with the public.

American Indolia

Caveat: I don’t watch American Idol but if it’s the only thing on, I’ll take a peek. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but I see that Anoop Desai was voted off this week. He was one of the few contestants I liked (minus the ridiculously bushy eyebrow thing). I don’t think he was the strongest vocally, but he definitely had some character and sounded like he could have been a proud member of one of the all-male acapella groups at the Ivy. Then, the thought crossed my mind: America, while electing a half black president, may not be ready for a non-white/black pop star. But the political incorrectness got the better of me.

Anoop should have had his countrymen in India call up those phone lines and vote. From the looks of it, India has a pretty freaking good handle on millions of phone centers. Why didn’t you use your secret weapon, Anoop!

Bonus Shmonus

I’m sure everyone has been waiting on pins and needles to read what the Fashion Financier has to say about everything that is going on. Unfortunately, the Fashion Financier has been anxiously watching her NCAA bracket (and her bet money) dissipate over the past two weeks.

Thankfully, there is never any shortage of idiots in America (especially in the media). Whenever I need a reminder of what’s wrong with Main Street, I roll over to the Dealbook blog (penned by the always-smirking Andrew Ross Sorkin) and read the inane, misinformed comments left by Joe in Bumblefuck, Idaho.

It is absolutely appalling and at the same time, pretty incredible, the amount of influence that the media has played in the unraveling of the global economy. As much as these commentators, reporters, and writers are running around trying to ‘expose the truth’, there’s also a huge factor of self-preservation involved. They like their jobs and in order to keep them, they need to sell papers, get viewers, and peddle subscriptions. In case you didn’t get the memo, the media industry is hurting just as much as every other sector. Thus, to fuel this impending class war, they pick a group of individuals to target and unleash their fury in the form of an editorial, blog post, or rant on television. They rally the masses who cannot think for themselves (or subsequently, do not have enough information to formulate a thought) and voila, we have the peasants chasing the landowners with pitchforks and torches. The government, created by the people and for the people, bends to the wishes of the angry crowds and begins to meddle in all aspects of the free-market world. The stench of socialism permeates every aspect of the economy and as such, I’m buying physical gold bars to hide under my bed.

Remember, without conflict, there is no interest.

In case you’re living under a rock (or just busy watching NCAA basketball as I’ve been), here’s a list of headlines that have popped in the news the last few weeks:

“AIG pays $165 million in bonuses after $170 billion bailout”
- In this market, I definitely did not understand the rationale behind the granting of retention bonuses. Dealbook, however, does a great job in playing devil’s advocate and gives very valid reasons as to why these large corporations actually pony up for large bonuses. It basically goes that these people are the ones who created dizzying complex financial instruments and only they know how to fix the problem. If they leave, other firms (such as hedge funds who are notorious for arbitrage opportunities) will poach them, use the information that these former employees of said corporation know, and make a ton of money by betting the other way.

“Dear AIG, I Quit!“
- It has been hinted that Andrew Cuomo, bonus-buster extraordinaire, threatened to release the names of the bonus recipients to the public if they did not return the money. Would you rather become a social pariah in American society by keeping your money or give back the money? If you chose social pariah, here’s what you have to look forward to!

“Drive by AIG Protest on Fairfield’s Elite Streets“
- It’s disturbing, isn’t it? A bunch of poors running amuck on your perfectly manicured lawn while the sad yellow school bus idles nearby to take them back to their mobile homes. They hold up signs that say “Give back bonuses!” and “Greedy fatcats!”. I hold up signs that say “Pay your fucking mortgage” or “Stop buying on credit!” We’re not that different, really.

In step 2 of coping, we end up with the government severely overreaching, marring the lines between the three branches of government and destroying the very pillars of capitalism.

“The House Passes 90% Tax on Bonuses at Rescued Firms“

Action, reaction:
“Bank of America Plans Higher Base Salaries“

We are a few episodes away from a re-enactment of the French Revolution. Faire les barricades! Vivre la Republique!
—————————————————————————————————–
A colleague of mine made a good point the other day. If taxpayers are so angry with firms that took their money, why don’t they do something about it? The essentially ‘own’ the firm so why can’t they get together and work to restructure something? Not happy with Ed Liddy? Fire him.

I sometimes forget, however, that we are humans. It is our nature not to want better for ourselves if we are in a miserable state but we want everyone else to be just as miserable. “That executive over there has money? I don’t want more money. I just want him to have none.”

The firms who took the taxpayer money are paying an interest rate of 5% on the borrowed funds. While this is all well and good, does it bother anyone that the average taxpayer is never actually going to SEE or RECEIVE these interest payments?

To end on a more positive note, the market is up! And happy one-year anniversary to the fall of Bear Stearns!

Emergence of Robin Hood

Steal from the rich, give to the poor.

See my Presidential Follies post and specifically the section of the Ten Cannots.

Presidential Follies – Stimulus Bill Action

As I settled down tonight to immerse myself in trashy reality television, I was a bit dismayed to find POTUS occupying every worthwhile channel on my telly. High definition unfortunately highlights and magnifies every flaw and imperfection. It’s a problem when you’re watching a program where every character is generally an old white person. Wrinkles? Check. Balding? Check. Nose Hair? Check. Yuckie. Moreover, someone needs to get Obama some chapstick or a tall drink of water. He looked super dry, for lack of the better word. Michelle Obama looks ridiculously fierce tonight — She is totally channeling a mix of Oprah and Beyonce: class and ferociousness.

Much speculation has led up to Obama’s speech. For me, I wondered what he could possibly say about the economy that would not result in a collage of sound bytes from his previous speeches? Turns out, nothing really. The first few minutes were quite boring as Congress seemingly mobbed Obama like 13-year old girls mob the Jonas Brothers. However, I enjoyed the formality of the whole spectacle which roots itself in 200 years of traditional proceedings.

A few observations:
- Standing ovations are the thing to do tonight. Biden and Pelosi lead the charge every single time. I think they may have Restless Leg Syndrome. They need to seriously chill out. Give the old senators a break! Their knees can’t handle all these up and down movements.
- Obama stumbling over his words more than usual. Nervous?
- Every time the camera pans over the room, Hillary Clinton’s bright pink outfit splashes across the screen.
- Timothy Geithner looking less than enthused over the topic of America emerging “stronger than ever”.
- Obama exclaims that “nobody messes with Joe”. Apparently, the SEC messes with Joe’s family.
- In general, the Republicans look pissed and bored.
- Obama blames the banks again for bad loans and being greedy. But really, who should we blame? Let’s travel back in time about ten years: “Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending“. Note the date. Note paragraphs 3 and 5. I really liked President Clinton but to cast blame only over the predatory lending practices of banks and credit card companies is a bit naive.
- “The flow of credit is this country’s lifeline.” Well, Mr. President, you’ve summed up the underlying problem of America’s economy right there. Too much buying on credit and too little personal saving. According to an article on CNN (sketchy, I know, so take it with a grain of salt), Americans saved on average of 3.6% of their income in December 2008. This is up from .8% in August 2008. That means in December, for every $100 earned, Americans put only $3.60 away in a bank account/401k/etc. In August, for every $100 earned, Americans put away a measly $.80. I’m not sure what people are trying to accomplish by saving that paltry amount. You’d do better if you threw spare change into a jar to be honest. The following has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln but was supposedly written by some Protestant minister in the same era. It’s called “The Ten Cannots”:
1) You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2) You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3) You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4) You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5) You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6) You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
7) You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8 ) You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9) You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence.
10) You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

Keep that in mind every time someone tries to compare Obama to Lincoln (or when Obama himself tries to portray himself as the modern Lincoln). Learn it. Love it. Live it.

- Obama goes after CEO pay yet again. Good luck with getting donations for the next campaign, Congress!

Enough of this farce. Obama can go on about all the touchy-feely aspects of the stimulus bill including education, employment and green energy. I prefer to look at the cold hard numbers. The Stimulus Bill roughly encompasses $787 billion to be spent in 3 phases over the next 3 years. For Phase I, the government plans to spend $185 billion in 2009 putting the overall federal deficit at $1.4 trillion. However, Obama vows to reduce the deficit. How? He’s got “magical accountants who don’t count stimulus expenditures against his deficit”. This extremely unsound logic only exists in the la-la land that is Washington D.C.

Phase II is deployed in 2010. This is where the chunk of the stimulus comes in ($399 billion). Unfortunately, many economists have argued that most of the money should be spent in the front end.

Phase III completes the cycle in 2011 with federal expenditure of $134 billion.

Here’s a general way the Stimulus Bill is broken down:
- 36.6% for tax relief.
- 6.7% for education.
- 18.3% for state and local governments.
- 14.1% for infrastructure and sciences.
- 7.5% for health care.
- 5.5% for energy.
- 10.3% for “protecting the vulnerable” (including hunger management, housing, employment, etc.)
- 1% for other.

For all Obama’s talk about the importance of education and green energy, he sure doesn’t put his money where his mouth is? Or will he? Only time will tell. I remain optimistic only because I see it as a great opportunity for arbitrage. Yay!

*Disclaimer: I really like Obama as a person. I think he has class, charisma and is pretty intelligent. However, I take issue with the way some of the current affairs are being handled. Naturally, this post targets Obama’s deficiencies as he is the figurehead of this stimulus bill but doesn’t really reflect my personal views about Obama the man.

Ouch

Even the television shows are getting into it. From an episode of Law and Order: SVU: “..He was repossessing a boat from an investment banker. The guy was recently laid off from Lehman.”

“Everytime a Representative speaks, a Dollar Dies”

This post will become colloquial at times. I apologize in advance.

As many may or may not be aware, the House Financial Services Committee had a hearing today which involved the CEOs of many investment banks and other random firms that provide financial services. A play-by-play account can be found here, narrated by the snarky yet witty Bess Levin. The day was full of twists and turns which ultimately resulted in the 7-hour berating of Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Vikram Pandit, Ken Lewis, John Mack and others who don’t matter as much. As much as I would have liked to give commentary throughout the day, I was too busy ‘making it rain’ (read: modeling and drafting investment committee memos). Thus, I’ve jotted down a few thoughts/questions/opinions/observations that I wanted to share.

1) Does Barney Frank have teeth? Because it sure doesn’t sound like it. And why was he sitting in one of the female congresswoman’s station after lunch? Did the Black rep boot him? In addition to sounding like a crazed, toothless man, Frank also played time nazi throughout the day. This of course did not stop him from taking back ‘yielded minutes’ and making his own comments.

2) Lloyd Blankfein is a super jewy jew. I’ve never heard him speak until today and I can assure you that he brings the “jew” in Goldman Sachs. There’s a reason they make money. That being said, I was pretty elated to see how well he defended himself and his bank. He became pretty aggressive at points throughout the day so kudos to him.

3) Jamie Dimon with his piercing blue eyes and full head of hair was a bit rougher sounding than I imagined. In fact, the huskiness of his voice coupled with the accent totally channeled construction worker rather than Master of Wall Street. Either that or he could totally be one of the Greasers. Nonetheless, I was enamored by the fact that he looked ridiculously bored throughout the day. His facial expressions screamed that all of the proceedings were beneath him which is partially true. I definitely would NOT want to meet him in a dark alley.

4) “Mr. Countrywide” “Actually, no, it’s Mr. Bank of America”. Awkward mistake. I never knew that Ken Lewis had such a southern drawl. Makes all his bullshit sound a little sweeter in my opinion.

5) Vikram Pandit was surprisingly articulate and quite the smooth talker. Despite having a ‘previous engagement’ that he tried to attend, in China no less, Big Vik made it to the Big Show. I could not really tell where his accent comes from but it screams British Imperialist. I like that his eyes smile. What I didn’t like was how he awkwardly brought up the whole Citi-buying-private-jet incident. Holy random.

6) State Street CEO slammed his own firm by calling it the “global back office of the financial world”. Sorry, State-Streeters. If any of you thought you were sitting in a revenue generating position, you were wrong.

The House Financial Services Committee is a melting pot of all the crackheads in Congress. First and foremost, I’ve been a true believer that people who could not make it into the Senate, ultimately end up in the House of Reps. Turns out, my suspicion was correct. The questions asked were inane, self-indulgent and absolutely idiotic. Simply put, the Reps who asked these questions are incompetent. I understand that you are representing your “constituents” but reading e-mails pulled from the commentary of any newspaper article regarding CEO pay is not really illustrating any worthwhile points to these CEOs. They will not feel bad for “Joe from Bumblefuck, Alabama” because most likely, Joe bought a $300,000 mobile home house that he put a $30,000 downpayment on.

Above all, my first question is, why couldn’t any of these reps get the CEO names right? “Dimon” nor “Blankfein” is not hard to pronounce. Neither is Pandit. I have to concede the fact that many of the people on this committee are from the South and we all know that as you move further down south, IQ level does as well.

While Barney Frank seemingly let every freaking congress person speak today, a few stood out in my mind. In particular, the crazy man (Rep. Michael Capuano) who spewed out a monologue fit for the silver screen. “So basically, all or most of you engaged in all or some of the activities that actually created this crisis in my opinion. Because every one of those activities, ESPECIALLY the SIVs. ESPECIALLY the SIVs. To me, I think they’re illegal. I cannot believe no one’s prosecuted you on this. But then again, we’ve had no prosecutorial action whatsoever in the last administration and the new administration has a little time to figure this out. We’ll find out. Whether anybody really cares. How could possibly, any regulated bank, have something on its books that’s totally unregulated for all intensive purposes it’s the same thing the bank does. That’s for your lawyers to answer and my hope is that you WILL be answering those questions in court some day. We’ll find out later on. But basically you come to us today, on your bicycles after buying girl scout cookies and helping out Mother Theresa. Telling us, ‘we’re sorry, we didn’t mean it, we won’t do it again. Trust us’. Well, I have some people in my constituency that actually robbed some of your banks. And they say the same thing. They’re sorry, they didn’t mean it, they won’t do it again. Just let them out. Do you understand that this is a little difficult for most of my constituents to take. That you learned your lesson? And, it’s all the same people doing this. The same people who CREATED SIVs, who CREATED CDOs, who CREATED credit default swaps. That never existed a few years ago. You created them, you created the mess we’re in. And you’re not the only ones, don’t get me wrong. You just happen to be the ones here today. I can’t wait to get the credit ratings agencies here again someday. Sorry, trust us. And by the way, we don’t even want the money. INTERESTING. No one’s ever come to me and say ‘you must take billions of dollars’…You have to understand. I don’t really have a question but I was told I could have five minutes…”
This diatribe is presented sans comment.

For one reason or another, every black representative brought up a question/comment related to diversity or lack thereof. I’m not really sure why its relevant when the discussion is SUPPOSED to be centered around the misappropriation and/or the use of TARP funds. Leave it to the brothas to inject some moral steroids into the hearing.

Back to commentary.

7) One of the female representatives focused her questions around the raising of interest rates for credit cards. She kept bringing up this example of how one of her constituents (i.e. one of the idiotic Main Streeters who voted for her) had her interest rates raised on her credit cards EVEN THOUGH she “made every payment on time”. Well, no. She didn’t pay on time. That’s why she has to pay interest. It seems to me that people do not realize that paying your credit card bill in installments is not the same thing as paying in full every month. Unfortunately, American society is one that’s been built on credit. Thus, this notion of ‘not paying in full’ every month has become the standard. Banks are lending the consumer money upfront to make their purchases and consumers feel cheated when they have to pay back this monthly ‘loan’. I truly believe that Americans need to have a lesson in Credit Cards 101.

8 ) “These taxpayers are being asked to bail you out.” Naturally, this point had been visited and re-visited over the course of the day. The idea of ‘taxpayers bailing out the struggling banks’ came in many different forms. However, the statement that struck me the most is the one I just quoted above. The taxpayers aren’t being asked to bail out these banks. It’s not like the IRS is coming around to people’s homes and issuing an extra tax bill. They’re not being asked to pay extra. They’re forced to pay their taxes and are merely distraught over the appropriation of the actual taxes. Each person thinks that his/her taxes are going to bail out the banks. They did Wall Street a favor. Thus, they want to benefit. Well, they really didn’t have a choice in the matter. You pay taxes or you get fined and/or go to jail. Does everyone benefit when the government decides to use taxes to pay for the invasion of Iraq? Maybe. But most likely, no.

Riddle me this. The government collected approximately $2.4 trillion worth of taxes last year. The top 5% of wage earners pay 50% of total taxes. Doing some rough math, the top 5% of wage earners paid approximately $1.2 trillion worth of taxes in 2008. Assuming 300 million people live in the U.S. and of those, 175 million actually work and are on payroll (yes, I know this doesn’t include the border hoppers or other illegal immigrants who keep much of the economy going). Then, approximately 8.8 million people shouldered $1.2 trillion worth of taxes.

The TARP fund consists of around $700 billion to be used for bailout purposes, insurance, and to buy back troubled assets. From this math and deductive reasoning, it is completely logical that the taxes of the top 5% of wage earners are going to bailout these banks. Where do these top 5% of wage earners come from? Business and financial services, probably. This way, even if these funds were used to pay bonuses, many of these financial workers are merely getting a tax refund.

9) On various occasions, committee members asked the banks to pause on the foreclosure of homes, payment of dividends to shareholders, and raising of interest rates. Apparently, these members live in an idyllic world made of rainbows, cupcakes and ponies. While I realize that the whole day was supposed to be a roast (without the comedic undertones) of the Masters of the Universe, the whole finger-pointing of “you did this” is a bit unfair. Even more so was the inability of these CEOs to defend themselves. Yes, banks royally fucked up. Yes, the investment banking business model no longer works. But, Wall Street is not 100% culpable. I truly believe that you have to look to the American mindset of “buy now, pay later” and the American dream of owning a home. These are the things that provided a template, a foundation, or rather, the cornerstone, to this financial mess.

10) The financial service industry is completely upside down. It’s broken. However, financial services is one of the few things that the U.S. offers in terms of export and output. Someone needs to fix it.

*****One of my esteemed readers (and a person on my fave list) commented that my critique of Southerners may have been a wee bit harsh. Despite what readers might think, I do, in fact, really like the South. Well, the cultured parts at least. Just thought I’d clear that up. Carry on!