科普贴: 华尔街是干嘛的? and why it is okay to hate it .

被问过很多次为什么拿着统计和经济的双学位不想去投行/华尔街 赚大把的money? 或者是经常有小朋友对墙街充满了无限憧憬,但是连基本wall street 是干嘛的都没有搞清楚. 那么我就来发点资料科普下:

1. what do wall street do for you: 这篇纽约时报的介绍美国金融体系的文章是我看过的最浅显易懂的了. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/1 ... eet-do-for-you.html


2: why it is okay to hate wall street? 华尔街现在在美国算是臭名昭著了. 一个有趣的现象是周围的中国同学大多很向往华尔街从业人员, 美国同学一律很鄙视他们. 俗话说没有无缘无故的爱,也没有无缘无故的恨. 当然你可以把占领华尔街运动看成是diao丝们对高帅富赤裸裸地嫉妒. 只想说如果你真心想去, 最起码了解下当下的大众心态的成因. 以及雷曼倒闭,无数金融从业人员扫地出门, 以及之后到现在都没有彻底缓解的hiring freeze, 次贷危机 占领华尔街 这一系列事件中华尔街扮演的角色. 隆重推荐奥斯卡最佳记录片得奖影片 inside jobs (监守自盗) : http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY1NTk5NjQw.html

3. 分享下我的朋友, 曾经就读商学院的Dr.Y 写的一段话(我个人很赞同,当然这是一家之言你也可以不同意):
With the collapse of Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers, as well as the merger of several other ibanks, thousands of ibank employees have been laid off. Those ibanks that haven't laid people off (I don't know if there even are any) have nevertheless put into place hiring freezes. You know what that means, kids? THERE ARE NO MORE IBANKING JOBS FOR YOU!!!

So kids, stop dreaming about how to make millions and millions of dollars and start thinking about how to make the world better. I am pretty sure the good times are over FOREVER, and life is going to be harder and harder for everyone on this planet. So please, don't go to business school and instead learn something useful at the College or the E-School or whatever else. Trust me, I went there, and I know precisely why we are in this recession. The students who eventually became ibankers (and currently out of a job... oh poetic justice) were the most money-worshipping people I have ever known (with a few certain exceptions, of course, and you know who you are). This type of me-first, money-is-all attitude cannot possibly be good for the world.

So if your lifelong dream was to be an ibanker, I'm sorry. But before you feel too sorry for yourself, think of all the people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the ibanking industry. I think your loss would pale in comparison to theirs.

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回复 2# 睿智的草
其实finance 是个很大的概念. ib 只是很小的一部分.  我写这个的原因是太多人只看到了最光鲜的一面,就是高回报, 但没有想过真的去了解这个行业最真实的一面. 现在的华尔街制度确实有问题. 那些人自己都承认. 我就是希望那么多聪明的同学在考虑帮自己创造收益的时候也可以想想怎么替别人替社会也create value. 次贷危机, 有很多人房子被银行收走, 还有很多人一辈子的养老金就这么没有了. 如果作为一个华尔街金融分析师的100万 salary 是靠用成千上万的人养老保险金来换, 我想这个钱就是可以赚到我也不会花的心安理得.

我就想强调这个: This type of me-first, money-is-all attitude cannot possibly be good for the world.

昨天在UNC开会有一个哥们问我，mathematics in finance 到底能不能让世界更好，和humanity有什么关系呢。。是不是唯一的办法就是想JS赚够几十个billion，然后再去慈善事业。肯定不是的，金融体系的目的除了赚钱，也是有让社会变得更好的目的。
其实finance并不都是坏人。很多pension fund的PM如果换成一些不做finance的人， 养老金decay的应该更快了。

回复 5# barret
我分享的第一篇文章就说了, imagine how bad this world could be without wall street.
我没有想把wall street 灭掉的意思. 我只是希望想去这个行业的小朋友想一想除了赚大钱以外,你还可以做什么. 毕竟make money 和make value 是不一样的. 我们当然更希望这个世界后者多一些.

那么对金融感兴趣的人应该去哪里工作呢？商业银行？

Greedy lives everywhere,especially in wall streets . They just make money by playing with the rules of Game.Regulation means nothing to the "talent“ Bankers..

同意楼主，金融业的处境很尴尬

回复 6# joyce1322

agree. 做起来还是比较难。每个人都要有一个崇高的理想，不管能不能达到。

其实金融危机未必是坏事情。比如次贷危机刺破了米国的房地产泡沫，可以避免金融危机延续到实体经济。

回复 9# guonai
如果你公司给你交的401k 托管在 雷曼 你就不这么说了