What would happen if people moved from banking and consultancy into more "productive" sectors?
You'd get a lot more of this kind of behaviour. I suspect.
Not really. This guy was a banker out of university, but never rose above VP level and has been a "technology entrepreneur" since 1995. He's one of yours, not one of ours. In general, the one constant refrain I hear from colleagues who have the misfortune of dealing with them is that the general ethical standards and basic managerial competence of technology industry executives is incredibly low[1], only football clubs are more reviled. This may be because lots of the really good tech administrators have been in banking for the last ten years (building what amounts to a quite large, very fast, very very reliable and very very very secure telecoms network; this is what most of "algorithmic trading" is about, the actual algorithms are often surprisingly nugatory). But I think not.
The Guardian (and its comments section) has a fine line in saying that what the financial crisis shows us is that the people who claimed to be the best candidates to run the world economy because of their superior skills, were lying and were no better than the general population. I think we also have to consider the frightening possibility that they were.
[1] Media industry people, on the other hand - very high. Which is odd, since Zygna is by any sensible classification a media company.
With the unvested shares, the executives believed they could attract more top talent with the promise of stock.
ReplyDeleteThat's insane. Because nothing is more attractive than stock options that might just vanish if the CEO has a hangover.
It's also interesting that they've gone from asserting that stock options should be valued at zero for accounting purposes, to treating them as if they were cash.
The giveaway is of course the "Google chef" thing, aka "my skewed and deeply perverse perception of a just world trumps mere contracts". ISTR Paul Allen's secretary at Microsoft cashed out $10m just after the launch of Windows 3.1 and bought a house by the beach, and Allen had enough class not to whine like a little bitch.
PS, this is the most pompous article ever: John Kay fantasises about leading the IMF/EU technocratic government of the UK.
ReplyDeletehe general ethical standards and basic managerial competence of technology industry executives is incredibly low[1], only football clubs are more reviled.
ReplyDeleteYou should try working for a British university.
The Captain is right. You really don't need university administrators in your life.
ReplyDeleteI did get the strong impression from some of the wrangling around Grayling Hall that the advisors already hate their clients.
ReplyDeleteHas that actually become a thing?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Nick Rowe digs out his Econ 101: McCarthyism for Students lecture notes in comments.
ReplyDeleteAh, finally, I remember to email Dan about the invite.
ReplyDeleteAs I think I've alluded to enough times, I used to audit NI's tax provisions - the tax team there were the best I've probably come across at, say, the basic sounding but actually rather complex task of making sure the tax disclosures in your statutory accounts cast properly.
Now the property business, which is my side of things these days... With the greatest of respect to my clients, Christ.
I'm sure our host will be amused to learn that Bank of America just hired Malcolm Gladwell to "deliver quality education and actionable advice to small business owners in various markets throughout the country."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he can give them "actionable advice", but I wouldn't have thought they'd pay for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness "Blink" is an actionable piece of advice, and probably quite a useful one, if you don't want your eyes to become dry. "Nudge", however, while equally actionable as a piece of advice, is surely likely to end you up with a fat lip.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking more of the primary meaning of the word.
ReplyDeleteRe: algorithmic trading, I was reading a rare paper the other day about how a particular extremely fast trading system was implemented. I'm now wondering how much of "algorithmic trading" is actually disguised frontrunning, or possibly use of fast networks to be the first to respond after an order but before the "uptick".
ReplyDeleteThen there's HFT, which I don't understand at all and am very suspicious of the stated rationale of very short term liquidity provision.
I'm inclined to believe the poor quality of IT management has something to do with the typical selection process, to wit, "You're a great programmer, we're promoting you to management!"
ReplyDelete