It's not a well-known fact but GS has been going down hill steadily for the past 10 years. They've been riding on the hype, extraordinary culture, incredible intellect and busineses acumen they had from the days when the were a private banking institution. If Investment Banking were the Olympics, the best they've had in the past few years is one or two Golds, several Silvers and a bunch of Bronze's.
I agree. Where does this firm get its edge on the competition. They all hire the same kids out of school. GS might just get kids with slightly hirer GPAs, which doesn't mean all that much. GS will have no problem hiring top talent. The job market is shit and fresh graduates with great GPAs and a list of other credentials would do anything to get a job at a small firm let alone GS.
"top talent" doesn't nearly drive firms, like GS, into bankruptcy. Stuffing cash in one's mattress created more value than the boys over at GS, in the past few years. The performance of the (US/UK) banking sectors is an empirical example of how these employees really aren't so 'smart' at all.
If not GS where would the top talent go? I think a lot of would be scientists, engineers etc got sucked into banking when the going was good. It would not be a bad thing if bright young graduates went into other fields now that banking has lost some of its gloss. There is a chronic shortage of graduates in some vital professions. Hopefully the current crisis might readdress the imbalance.
God (Allah, Buddha, etc.) help us if this so-called 'top talent' goes into something other than banking. Last thing we need collectively is for some bright and promising technology to be messed up through weak understanding over the science involved, and overoptimism in its application.
Here is a fair question...... What if you had a trading division that was privy to large position holdings and their price levels.....knowing that the holders were highly leveraged ? What if the main goal was to provide the railroad for hedge funds by providing extensive credit....in order to have a heads up on their holdings.....and being able to trade against them.... Now...think about this.... Oil prices....commodity prices...stock prices........ Now think about this...... Why did oil prices crash ? What is the impact of large hedge fund psoitions on stocks ? .................................................................. Just what is the particular brilliance involved ? Is it legalized and better inside information ? ...................................................................... This is why there is a need for a basic boiler plate world wide exchange....... Eliminate the expensive middlemen nonsense.....Or is some insider information ok to use by firms such as a GS ? ....................................................................... The king always gets the information first ? Or do we still have kings ?
"Top talent" is what got us in to this mess. When will we learn that using a MBA as the only criteria for employment is a failed method? Especially when considering the dumbing down of the educational system. An MBA today means you had the time and money to get one. It has very little to do with intellect and nothing to do with integrity.
no offense...but this should have been immediately obvious the minute GS said "we want to be a regular bank, not an IB" at that moment, they no longer have the huge leverage, thus the bonuses will be cut severely, thus (good) people won't want to work the long hours..etc. and that's not taking into account the financial downturn.