Wall street Conservative or liberal? which firms are which?

I'm just wondering about the political climate of the street. I am guessing it would be conservative, but I'm wondering if certain firms are more liberal or not.

Especially concerning JP vs GS vs MS.

To me, based on all of my interviews, MS is ultra conservative, JP is moderate and GS is liberal, unless others have had different experiences. I am basing mine off of the interviews I've had and attending different events.

I mean to make it more clear I see MS=Ted Cruz JP= ???? (Canada.....lol) GS=Hillary Clinton UBS= Trump.....maybe.

26 Comments
 
Controversial

Anyone who is on Wall Street but isn't a conservative is an idiot. Unless you're already a billionaire. But still, idiot.

EDIT: even with the MS I stand by my statement.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 
"reformed"

Have you even graduated yet?
How are you a Certified User?

Because I work full time in SaaS sales which as been verified per Linkedin and provide extremely good information, 90% of the time regarding sales, venture capital and the tech/startup scene.

"KHALEESI"

Hmmm. So conservative equates to greed?

Nope. Being conservative serves the best self interest of those who make above the median household income. If you're voting against your own self-interest that makes no economic sense.

"It is better to have a friendship based on business, than a business based on friendship." - Rockefeller. "Live fast, die hard. Leave a good looking body." - Navy SEAL
 

OK, the original question is fairly stupid, but to give a serious answer: These are gigantic firms, and trying to characterize them by general political beliefs is futile. As someone noted, your personal experience inside one of the these firms will be much more dependent upon the specific group, rather than any sort of "firm political culture". For example, you note GS as a "Clinton" firm, but Ted Cruz's wife was an MD at GSAM.

You know what Wall Steet firms don't do? Take risks. How do they avoid doing that in the political process? By buying up every candidate, both sides of the aisle. There's always a way to hedge your risks.

 

Obviously, it is my opinion based on the fact i interviewed and/or worked at each one. So i based it off of my impression. Intelligent people would give their opinions back, not call a question stupid. Im not asking if you agree, im asking what are diffrrent people's perception of each firm,liberal or conservative wise.

I used those politicians as examples, and obviously they don't fit each one to the tee. But those are my impressions.

 

I'm at a bigger firm, and I'll say that essentially our firm is anti regulation if they think it's bad for business. like the fiduciary standard, we got countless memos about that from senior management saying how bad it is and educating us on the potential implications. I assume this means they're conservative, because this was a liberal agenda a la mary jo white, elizabeth warren, and others like them.

I agree, you can't paint a broad brush. by and large, you'll find less socialists in a capitalistic industry, but that doesn't mean that they won't vote democrat on occasion. from what I've seen, there are a lot of democrats in big tech and pharma companies, but the southeast as a whole is pretty red.

 

Goldman's hemorrhaging rates traders not so much from tightwound risk management as much as from them firing the entire STIR desk over the summer after one of the Fed announcements.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

GS is winding up its entire prop division because it has no choice, now that it is a bank holding company. Now, it would be interesting if they could try to work within Volcker, and retool SSG as a hedge fund sponsor, and collect their 2/20, or maybe even more given their name and historical successes. But that said, GS' strategic plan seems to be cutting prop and growing wealth management. It's not as sexy, but maybe long-term it's the better call.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 

Morgan definitely holds the reins a bit looser than other firms. The TIPS bet countering PIMCO was one that Hadden was behind, and that's just one example that hit the news.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

Socially liberal and fiscally conservative, which would probably translate to classic liberalism. Curious to get an idea of the WSO distribution, though...

 

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