Former Wall Street Trader: ‘There’s No Other Industry Where You Could Get Paid So Much

[cal04]

Former Wall Street Trader: ‘There’s No Other Industry Where You Could Get Paid So Much For Doing So Little’
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/06/419907/trader-paid-much-doing-little/

One of the problematic developments for the U.S. economy in the last several decades has been increased financialization. In the 1950s, the financial sector made up less than 3 percent of the economy. Today, it is back to its pre-recession heights of more than 8 percent. The financial sector accounts for about 30 percent of total corporate profits, which is actually down from before the financial crisis, when it made closer to 40 percent.

Increased financialization is of dubious societal use; as former Federal Reserve Chairman and big bank critic Paul Volcker has said, “I wish someone would give me one shred of neutral evidence that financial innovation has led to economic growth — one shred of evidence.” (Volcker has opined that the last useful bit of financial innovation was the ATM.) At the same time, the industry is one of the highest paid. In a new piece in New York magazine, a former Lehman Bros trader explained that, in his view, “there’s no other industry where you could get paid so much for doing so little“:
http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/wall-street-2012-2/

Many (on Wall Street) acknowledge that the bubble­-bust-bubble seesaw of the past decades isn’t the natural order of capitalism—and that the compensation arrangements just may have been a bit out of whack. “There’s no other industry where you could get paid so much for doing so little,” a former Lehman trader said

[tanyev]

1. I guess something has to balance out all the jobs where you get paid so little for working too much.

[crazylikafox]

2. +1

[Ebadlun]

3. It's the new priesthood

A small caste of people taking the piss under a veneer of mysticism.

[JHB]

4. And that, folks, is one of the big arguments for Eisenhower-era marginal tax rates

Kinda damps the charm of naked speculation if 90% of your Big Win stands to go to Uncle Sam instead.

Yes there were plenty of loopholes to avoid paying that rate. But people still needed to jump through those loops, and had a reminder that there is no Divine Right to absolute maximized profit.

[phasma ex machina]

5. Billionaires such as Buffett make a killing by ordering central banksters to bail them out.

[Dawson Leery]

6. A high tax rate on "capital" gains could go a long way to solving this problem.

[Honeycombe8]

7. I wish I'd known that when I was younger. That's what most people want, right?

A job where we get paid a lot of money, does no harm, and requires less than normal hours? Do that a few years, then change and you can afford to do something for a living that you really enjoy and is of more value.

I don't view being a stockbroker as doing harm. They merely execute sales & purchases, as requested by clients. (I am not talking about the hedgefund shenanigans that harmed the economy.)

[Starry Messenger]

8. No, that's pretty much the natural order of capitalism.

It's been a bubble-bust-bubble seesaw since the inception.

[JFN1]

9. Sure there is.

Drug dealer, paid assassin, Member of Congress, etc...

[MADem]

10. "Industry?" Since when is organized graft an "industry?"

To me, the word "industry" connotes actual work, with a product at the end of it all. Stealing from people, moving cash around, and skimming off the top? That's always been organized crime, to my mind!

[scarletwoman]

11. Well, you must admit they're very industrious about it.

[MADem]

12. Hee hee--you got that right! nt