My Manhattan Project

[DeadManCrawling]

http://nymag.com/news/business/55687/

[DeadManCrawling]

I hope I formatted this correctly. I don't want any demerits if possible.

Though this is from 9 months ago, I was unable to find any copy of it posted on the BK Forum, and found it incredibly relevant. Perhaps more so now, than it was then.

Fascinating reading and an incredibly clear look at the inside of a couple of Wall Street giants. Utterly disgusting, too.

Best,

-dmc

[justbroke]

I can't believe I read the whole thing. I almost ended up at Fidelity in the early 1990s supporting the trading floor for Magellan as a systems manager. One of the jobs was to "out do" the Traders in creating utility programs for the traders. I was told that the Traders all think they are smarter than the computer people, and they prove it by writing their own programs. My job would have been to outdo them with even better programs.

Ahh... I don't miss that I didn't go that way.

[banca rotta]

I don't blame this one person for everything. I blame Bush, Obama, Paulson, Geitner and Bernankie for bailing out Wall Street.

If you lost your wall street job or mortgage broker job from the crash well too bad! Go produce something that people can actually use.

If you lost your home due to the subprime crash then chances are you shouldn't have been in it in the first place.

The real crash is around the corner thanks to "fixing" what this software engineer says he contributed to.

Good reading though DMC, Thanks!

[backtoschool]

This guy is a composite of a lot of people on wall street. The quants and the techies do not drive the market. The demand for guaranteed profit at whatever cost comes straight from the top of these wall street firms.

[justbroke]

backtoschool is correct. I was interviewed by a Fidelity Manager, and let me tell you... he ran Magellan (in the 80s), and he walked on water. We techies didn't cause anything. As I wrote earlier, the "traders" always thought they were smarter than we techies, and if we didn't write a program to do what they wanted... they would do it. Our job was to "support" the trading floor, nothing more. We made no decisions.

[DeadManCrawling]

I understood, as I read this, that much was left unsaid, or condensed, even people.

What caught my attention was the sheer vulgarity of the views and the context of the institutions and mindsets.

In all honesty, I do have a somewhat valid comparison. I worked in the broadcast industry during a similar period. Radio stations were overrun with concert and record promoters, hookers were hired, and mountains of cocaine appeared every day of every week. All to get music played to the masses. I was there, I lived it and saw it, and saw the incredibly disgusting atmosphere that pervaded everyone from the receptionist and interns to top management.

I will also admit it was one of the most fun and interesting times of my life. I was in my early 20's, to be fair, so wasn't at the top of the intellectual mountain yet.

Fascinating to see the seedy side of an industry and point of view that had such large ramifications for, literally, everyone.

[justbroke]

Fascinating to see the seedy side of an industry and point of view that had such large ramifications for, literally, everyone.

Wait until a Hollywood insider spills his guts!

[Mi Bankruptcy]

The sick thing is this all makes sense to me and seems like an a good idea to offered something secured with risk spread through out. Hmmm. almost seems too good to be true..lol