Yesterday Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that banking needs to be made “boring.” Like most of Krugman’s material on the financial crisis it’s worth a read; it explains how it’s a bad sign that banking is an exciting industry drawing many of the most gifted young minds of America, more than a fair share of them coming from right here at Harvard, and that to resolve this crisis we will need to drastically rethink regulation of the industry.
What does it take to be a banker these days? Certainly a top notch resume, ambition, coursework in economics, etc. But more than anything it seems one needs the desire to be really, really rich and the accompanying willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed. Speaking solely from personal experience, for every person I meet at Harvard who plans to go into finance because they love working with numbers, I meet a couple dozen who seem more interested in the paycheck. The work is, you know, less important.
Shouldn’t the people entering finance be doing so because they have a passion for it? One does, after all, need a good amount of the inner conviction and strength following your passion provides in order to work 60+ hour weeks without losing their sanity. What does it say about the industry that so many bankers-to-be have a passion for money making, and not much else? I’m unsure what precisely to make of it, but something tells me it should make us pretty suspicious of the banks. Especially since we own the damn things.