GS &MS SA prospects?

In the short term, not at all to positive for S&T and likewise for IBD. Market demand is still weak, and the bank will likely want to know what kind of assets it will acquire before staffing up. That said, they may have already been looking at targets and may boost S&T in the future to handle future business.

S&T def up in the long term. the whole point of the commercial bank is that it uses commercial deposits to fund trading activities -- hence trading activities.

But of course, IBD and S&T are not separate divisions. You can't offer debt, or equity without the S&T. Cultural barriers notwithstanding, expect to see MS and GS to become bigger financing players, stealing talent where they can. It's a public company and it's got a new business model. An alternative for GS is that they will take on the "minimum neccessary" deposits neccessary to fund trading activities and get more heavily into prop stuff.

What should be more interesting is how this affects M&A into the future. Not sure what impact if any this will have.

I see it affecting S&T more -- in the immediate future -- as they reduce risk-taking, and I believe you will see a greater focus on traditional advisory services.

The point is getting a job on Wall Street in future is going to be much harder than it has in the past...

Good luck to 2010 and beyond...

I have to agree that I think you will always have the need for M&A advisory as well as security offerings. Corp Fin should be ok through all of this...not sure how it will affect S&T, but with less leverage, and a lower tolerance for exotic, complicated financial products, I would imagine that trading bonuses, etc. will go down in the future.

VAR will be slashed across the board so in the short term S&T will take a hit.

Start shopping HFs if you are smart

What do you mean as in short term? 2-3 years?

364, 270 or less, typically.