Tag Archives: Finance

Why go into investment banking (as opposed to grad school)?

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Davos envy and Romney’s income in the last two years (and tax rate) have got quite a few people thinking and talking about the morality and usefulness of the financial sector. The odd thing, however, is that ever more brilliant college leavers (including from my alma mater) continue to be attracted to the financial sector and not the real economy (there was a brief decline after the 2008 recession but it appears that the trend is picking up again?

So why do college graduates want to be on the street or racking up lifetime miles in consulting? The simple answer is that returns are great, as shown in this illustration from theiBanker.

HT FTAlphaville.

Prof. Ndung’u should stay, away with the whining MPs

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For once Kenya has a responsible academic running the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u has exuded nothing but confidence in his first term in office. Given that finance is a confidence game, this has been a most welcome scenario. It is therefore weird that there are MPs out there crowing that his reappointment be reviewed. Given the country’s political temperature this seems like a dumb misguided move. You remove Prof. Ndung’u and you might end up with someone who is down with printing money to pay for next year’s elections. I say let’s not play politics with the Central Bank.

I fully support Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u remaining as CBK governor. Just one request, echoing Jaindi over at the Daily Nation:

A piece of advice for Prof Ndung’u. You will go down as the best governor in the country’s history if you get the banks to reduce banking spreads. Commercial banks are fleecing borrowers.