It's now official: Paul Kedrosky has left the normal world behind completely. There is a value of "that well" for which the statement "investment banking (and trading, etc.) pays well, it doesn't pay that well" is true. But such a value is not assigned to "that well" by anybody with any contact in the normal world:
Infectious Greed: "Got to Get the Jet": Why do so many investment bankers continue to labor away at a job that has already made them highly wealthy, but that is best characterized as moments of interest surrounded by weeks of towering boredom?
Because they've got to get the jet:
The trouble is that while investment banking (and trading, etc.) pays well, it doesn't pay that well. That is why so many i-bankers now fancy themselves as private equity sorts, hedge fund managers, and pretty much anything else where they can get away from being fee-for-service slaves and generate some real wealth."Why are you still doing this? Endless hours, demanding clients, insane competition, and an insane and demanding boss. You've made your nut. Why not tell 'em all to get stuffed, go get to know your kids?"
The deal maker smiled, and looked far younger than his fiftysomething years as he replied: "Got to get the jet."
This is a remarkable revolution of rising expectations. And it will continue. As somebody said upon being told that Paul Allen owned two 757s, "Jesus! Doesn't anybody own a widebody?"
UPDATE: Paul Kedrosky protests that he is still firmly in the normal world, and that his "doesn't pay that well" was meant ironically. He's right--now that I can hear him in my mind's ear.
He suggests putting ironic comments in blue in the future.
Posted by DeLong at June 16, 2004 09:40 AM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postI think the real answer for why i-bankers keep working is power, not money. When they go to work, they are important. If they retired, they'd be home taking out the trash.
Posted by: Jimbo on June 16, 2004 09:51 AMWhy not combine this story with the previous story?
Isotopically pure diamonds --- at a cost of maybe 100x a normal flawless diamond --- for the girl who has everything?
It probably doesn't help that investment bankers, however wealthy they may be, spend a lot of their time with people and institutions that have much, much more money than they do.
Posted by: David Moles on June 16, 2004 10:09 AMAnd here I thought they would continue to work because of the reduction in the estate tax...
Posted by: Rob on June 16, 2004 10:22 AMI can't speak to the Jewelry value of an isotopically pure diamond, but from an application standpoint, it has value.
It has a significantly higher thermal conductivity, and IIRC diamonds are already the most thermally conductive substance on earth.
I could imaging some heat sink or chip (diamonds are electrical insulators) applications where there might be an advantage.
Posted by: Matthew Saroff on June 16, 2004 10:47 AMSo this means Gordon Gekko lives, huh? I thought the stake had been driven into his heart during the bubble.
Posted by: Linkmeister on June 16, 2004 11:38 AMThis sort of shit is why I tell everyone that if they plan to go postal, shoot upper management first.
How many yachts do you need to water ski behind?
Posted by: Matthew Saroff on June 16, 2004 01:06 PM"If they retired, they'd be home taking out the trash."
Hell, no: even if they can't yet get the jet, they could certainly afford a live-in maid to deal with all the mundane household chores.
"it doesn't pay *that* well".
Yeah, totally unhinged from reality as most of us know it.
It's amazing how your social and economic milieu colors your perceptions. After I got my (math) doctorate, I taught for five years in the mid-1990s at one of the lowest-paying private colleges in the U.S., with income averaging just under $25K for the period. Now I'm just another GS-13 government statistician, and I consider myself obscenely well-paid.
Personally, I'd rather have a life than a jet.
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