The populist inquisition
I realize that the hatred for Goldman and Wall Street is still seething but this is getting absurd.
Tony Manfred, a senior at Cornell and Associate Editor of The Cornell Daily Sun, threw a 784 word hissy fit bashing the bank and added:
“The bank, along with the rest of corporate America, pursues Cornell’s best and brightest — tabling at career fairs, holding information sessions and setting up shop in the narrow corridors of Barnes Hall. It vets and interrogates tests and examines, and eventually it leaves campus with a wish list of eager undergrads. A few months later, those same undergrads are paying for a few rounds of drinks at a celebratory Long Island iced tea night. And come summer, these undergrads have transformed into full-fledged Goldmanites — squeezing every drip of profit out of the rag that is America with conscious abandon — under the tragically correct assumption that the rest of us are, above all else, jealous of them.”
Manfred here wants to kick out GS from Cornell’s campus recruiting, saying:
“This must end. A corporation with Goldman’s track record of bubble-building and profiteering has no place on this campus.”
His Long Island iced tea hatred, closet communism, and overall misinformation aside, this wanton acrimony for Wall Street is a major blight for finance in general.
Thousands of people flock to Wall Street year after year, with most being the best and the brightest the top schools around the world. These people have worked hard, got good grades, and some, God forbid, sacrificed enjoying college to get where they are.
How many of them aspire to be the next Madoff? None.
Yet they are vilified and scorned as if they are.
“We need to come to terms with the fact that people who go to work for a greedy, criminal machine that has been consciously inflating economic bubbles and screwing over the public since the 1920s, are, by definition, greedy criminals. These people are our classmates, our sorority sisters, our best friends, but they are also bad people. To put it bluntly, they are assholes. Huge assholes. Assholes who are aware of the social and economic damage they will soon perpetuate, but don’t care.”
Huge assholes, assholes who pay far more taxes than you do, assholes who have donated far more time and money to charities and foundations than you have. Huge fucking assholes. And while we’re at it, can you explain to me how the banks created bubbles?
Unfortunately this populist mentality won’t be going away soon, and to see it in the Ivies isn’t reassuring.
Tomorrow I will probably meet another Tony, and I will not say sorry for my ambitions. I will not say sorry for wanting to work hard, and I will not say sorry for not wanting to be a fireman or a teacher.
What I will be sorry for, is him.
How about you guys? How will you handle a Tony?
NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!
This kid should have gone to Oberlin...
check mate
This dude is absolutely wrong. But I can't help but wonder why so many people who don't work for Goldman care so furiously about them getting bashed. Yes, Wall Street is massively unpopular; yes, Goldman is the most unpopular firm on Wall Street. Wall Street isn't going anywhere, but it's also probably never going to be popular again, and that's just tough shit. If you want some love from a random dude on the street, go join the Peace Corps; the disdain of other people is just another sacrifice if you want to do finance.
People here seem to forget a little bit too often that working your ass off to get a sick job in finance is no more or less worthwhile than working your ass off to get a PhD in English or risking your life every day pulling complete strangers out of fires. You want to work in finance; cool. Other people don't; that's cool, too. But trust me, the firefighter doesn't give two shits what some GS dude thinks of him, and the would-be GS dude needs to get into the same mindset. If you're really that comfortable with and proud of your ambition, what the fuck do you care what everyone else thinks?
They care because if chicks go, "OH....You work for Goldman Sachs. I don't think I want to fuck you now." They won't want to work there.
This will never ever ever happen because girls go after money, but still, men who work at Goldman Sachs care what people think of them.
Quite personally, i get torn down all the time because i want to be a fund manager one day (PE,HF or REPE), and quite honestly i could care less...people say that bankers (im using this as all of wall st) are the devil and that we (hopefully i will join the ranks one day lol) "rape and pillage" america..but this is not the case...where would the country be without bankers, without credit...lol...nowhere...even third world countries use the notion of credit and collateral when partaking in loans and such lol...bankers are a necessary evil...i dont see many folks tearing down the premed kids when according to a statistic i read a few days ago, most doctors just prescribe drugs they are getting paid to push by Big Pharma...but noooooooooooooo nobody talks about that...just attack the bankers...
dont even get me started on lawyers...smh..lol
This was written by a 12 year old that thought he was on AIM.
Oops...I am truly ever so apologetic...I originally thought that this website was informal...I did not realize that I must reply to post's as if I was working on my graduate thesis...ever so sorry..please forgive my finite mind...
Also, thanks for your post; it was full of earth shattering knowledge...really it shook me at the core of my being...
wait, why are you following a college news paper and when did college news papers become a viable source of news and opinions?
And we just find new ways to lower the bar....
Hey Hosers, Shaddap already!
don't hate masturbate
somebody photoshop loyd blankfein's face onto this kid's for hilarity to ensue
http://www.hatersgoingtohate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/haters-gonn…
lol i call bs and say you used ms paint :D
Corel Hahaha
Funny how the Cornell kid's moral compass only opposes the financial system, and not the defense industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the oil/gas industry, or any of the other "evil" industries that recruit large numbers of recent graduates.
first time poster, long time reader.
First, I want to start by saying that the cornell article, while totally extreme, should not be ignored. I am currently looking to jump in full-time on Wall-st after I graduate this year and have been learning quickly. While I do love following the markets and current economic trends, I keep questioning my intentions and this line of career as a whole. Now I am not going to say that wall-st is evil, because like others have pointed out, many other glorified professions have skeletons. What is beginning to bother me as I look to starting a career in this field, is when I am unable to answer the question, "what do I create?". I think this is the underlying anger that "main st." America is feeling as well. I understand the necessity of accessible capital and liquid markets, but what about when those needs are met?
Just to clarify, this is more of a rant than a criticism. I am hitting that point in college where It is too late to change my major, and quite frankly I don't know what else I would do besides finance because I do enjoy it. It is that quarter-life crisis where I am afraid of being in a career where I do not create any real value besides the profits I squeeze out of other people's creations. Also, I can't help but notice some truth about wall-st. As I am doing all of the networking required of the full-time search, I am learning how proportionally, there are a huge amount of assholes in this industry. That too worries me, but it could be the result of such a competitive industry.
Again, I am not trying to be an asshole myself. So before some poster gets super defensive, realize that these are more self doubts as a result of beginning to feel locked (senior year is a weird time). I am merely looking to see if anyone else ever feels this way about what they do. Any advice or opinions are great.
My sister used to call me up just to dog me sometimes. She'd ask me, "Sooo...did you sell any air today?"
The typical career on Wall Street is just moving money around, and shaving a vig off of both sides of a transaction that never would have come about organically in the first place. If you're worried about not creating anything, it might be time to take a couple shop classes.
Did you see the inside job? a lot of stuff i had no clue about goes on there...however i am going through what you are and i can say that its going to take awhile to get over....something you could do instead of wall street i guess is work for a F100 corporation..I mean you still aren't really creating anything but you are doing more than moving money around...Its like senior year, you wake up from all of the studying and life prep to realize...ok now i actually am going to have to live...a real time of self evaluation and awakening...The one thing that kills me about the industry is how you basically have to be somebody's lackey for a long time before you ever get a say so in anything...i don't know if i can take doing research and doing pitch books for no reason just because the MD got in a fight with his wife and is murdering the team...i personally am looking into entrepreneurial ventures now, if something comes up then i will def. jump at it...I mean Jeff Bezos dropped out of wall street and started amazon...and he is more wealthy than 99% of those on wall st....so its just that time in life...if you can find something you are semi passionate about and can make a living i say jump at it...do what you love...i remember in the dave chapelle interview where his father told him that if you can make a teacher's salary being a comedian then go for it...i guess that's what people in general have to do...find something that stimulates them to the point where they could do it if they were not getting paid...I HIGHLY doubt most people can say that about Investment Banking...maybe some other areas of wall street though...
efficient capital markets
Wait for it...
Wait for it......
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Side comment in response to: "I'm too poor to go to a top school and so I went to VCU":
In-state tuition and public school ranking
$22,893 - UVA - National Public School Rank 2 (Target for many banks/F500) $15,749 - VTech - National Public School Rank 27 (Respected engineering program) $17,343 - VCU - National Public School Rank 90 (?)
See what I did there?
Forgot one, William and Mary 11,769 a year (Semi Target with a couple BBs on campus)
^^^ Brutal.
I reiterate my comment from above to the Hosers here, and there are a few.
And to ibdawhateverthehellyoucallyourself, this is nothing personal, but could you please actually write in coherent sentences and in a rather standardized form? I'm about ready to just discredit you entirely because of your inability to write properly. I have no problem with poor grammer and spelling, as everyone here is prone to messing up at times or being curt in their responses, but I have a problem with not being able to clearly read what you are saying without having to take out my Web2.0 to English dictionary and Idiots Guide to Web Grammer to understand you. I'm not sure whether to say you are a Wall-of-Text type or just unable to form complete sentences. If you want to be taken seriously, instead of being viewed as a hoser, at least make your post legible. I guess that is just a problem with the education system than anything else.
Aggravate, well said. The costs are definitely cheaper if you are in state, something I considered about doing when I went to college... but then I would have to give up my Jersey Guy status for 2+ years, which I didn't want to do. From my own experience at a state school, they are less selective on admissions for in-state students as well, meaning it's easier for a less qualified in state student to attend a top state funded public school than an out of state candidate. Obvisoulys, there is the added benefit of a significantly decreased tuition by being in state as well. The guys in state, if they are good, should not have a problem getting into the top public schools in their state.
To echo whateverittakes, perception accounts for a lot. Be it looks, networking or academics, people will look at you and judge you based on whatever perception they have of you. One of the reasons I got my first internship years ago was because I came in from a well known school (albeit a non-target and far from the academic rigors of HYPS or a top of the line UC school) with a great alumni network and a name brand that was recognized by more people than you could imagine, who either know of the school or know or work with someone who went there. The guy I interviewed with was impressed by one of the minions who went to my alma mater and decided to see if he coudl find anyone else from there who would fit into his group. The truth is, without a brand name university or knowing someone, you'll have a much harder time getting into the game at the really big name shops. As good of an education as you get, without a brand name, you're looked at alot differently than everyone else.
Bigglesworth, SB for you.
Thank you for pointing out the key issue that I took offense with. This guy definitely was off his rocker by not targeting every evil industry, from Agribusiness who kill our land to the Defense Contractors who profit on war and everything in between. It's sad when we focus our hatred on solely one cause and ignore the fact that they are not the only one causing harm. His populist rant is more of a disappointing diatribe than anything else. It's anger inducing, but nothing more than him pandering to the populist slant because he blindly believes in a liberal populist agenda.
.
Enjoy
lol
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