IN MY SHOES: What It’s Like To Be An Investment Banker (These Days)
Investment bankers – arguably the most reviled group in America, even with tort lawyers and journos in the mix – must be envious of Tom Daschle, Leon Panetta and other former Clinton administration officials raking in the Big Bucks without breaking a sweat (second item). They, on the other hand, sweat and toil 18 hours a day, seven days a week – much of that time getting yelled at by maniacal bosses. Like a waitress whose minimum wage salary is augmented by tips, or a salesman whose base pay is plumped up by commissions, junior and mid-level executives in the financial sector are paid modestly for the number of hours they put in, and rely on that bonus check to make it all worthwhile. Here are snippets of various articles about bankers and bonuses that captures the zeitgeist on Wall Street:
“I’d almost rather say I’m a pornographer. At least that’s a business that people understand,” a retired Wall Street executive tells The New York Times. Adds Ken Miller, a former vice chairman at Credit Suisse First Boston: “Fact is that this is a terrible way to make a living - except for the money. The lifestyle is terrible - the hours, the sucking up. These guys must feel like they’re the victims of a capricious god.”
The New York Times also captures this vignette:
[A]round the corner [from the New York Stock Exchange], Larry Meyers and Gerard Novello, who work for an Italian securities firm, ducked into a Mexican cantina for a drink. It was Mr. Meyers’s 43rd birthday, and he ordered the tequila.
“On Main Street, ‘bonus’ sounds like a gift,” he said. “But it’s part of the compensation structure of Wall Street. Say I’m a banker and I created $30 million. I should get a part of that.”
“There’s got to be a better term for it,” he added, turning to Mr. Novello.
“Earned income credit?” he wondered aloud.
Editorial Note: The Stiletto’s sympathy does not extend to the pampered CEOs who seemed to believe that she and other taxpayers wouldn’t mind bankrolling their obscene pay packages and corporate perks. She had the same reaction Jon Stewart did (2:18 into the clip) when former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain (third item) explained that “If you don’t pay your best people, you will destroy your franchise”:
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