re: #437 iossarian

Well, that’s part of it as well. But (from my somewhat limited experience of investment banking), there are plenty of guys making six figures who don’t have the opportunity to actually fiddle the books to their own advantage.

So, why do banks pay these young men shedloads of money to do work that, while demanding, is not actually all that difficult? I think it’s largely because no-one grows up dreaming of becoming an investment banker. They are being paid to forget that there are better things they could be doing with their lives.

But if that is the reason we’d be paying coal miners seven figures, too.

No, it’s that there is a real difference in outcomes (if you are Goldman or some such entity) if you can get smarter people. So they pay more. Make no mistake about it: Goldman hires brains. (They look for, and get, other qualities as well. And they can afford to be picky.)