Sunday, September 27, 2009

Subprime Crisis -- Bird and Fortune

As the financial crisis begun, two brilliant British actors joined forces and started this satire of the American investment banker.

Although throughout the whole skit these two individuals are mocking said investment banker, there is a lot of truth in what they are saying. From my experience right out of college, investment banking is part analytics, and mostly voodoo magic and "educated" guesswork. Ultimately, they are high paid pitchmen figuring out new venues for the American investor to spend their hard earned money. Paraphrasing one of my favorite quotes from the movie Wall Street -- they (investment bankers) make money out of nothing.

In essence, American financial institutions did something similar to this with the junk bond market in the 1980s. Take very risky, and sometimes unmarketable investments, repackage them into larger investment vehicles and then give them an attractive name.

History really repeats itself, huh?


"John Bird and John Fortune (the Long Johns) brilliantly, and accurately, describing the mindset of the investment banking community in this satirical interview."

No comments:

Post a Comment