Saturday, October 27, 2007

What Investment Bankers Do Today

"In the old days, that is until about five years ago, investment banks were purely in the busines of intermediating risk. ... Investment banks like to pretend that they employ many an Einstein in their ranks, but the truth is, of course, far more mundane. ... For the investment banks, this absence of people to stuff (retail investors) meant that financial products simply had to get more complex for them to make any money. ... The increasing complexity of derivative products was encouraged by rating agencies, who wanted to increase their own fees. ... [I]nvestments that had been priced at about 90 at the end of August were reduced to 30 or 40 at the end of September", Chan Akya at www.atimes.com, 26 October.

These are the geniuses who want the public to bail them out.

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