Back in August, a Dartmouth undergraduate wrote an editorial taking issue with “faceless hedge funds” and his peers in New Hampshire who “flock to Wall Street to perpetuate class-based systems of power and dominance.” And, as the new semester began, it turned out that Dartmouth boy wasn’t alone. At campuses across the country but particularly at Ivy League schools, those less than thrilled with Wall Street, and the prospect of their fellow students taking jobs there, have let it out. As a result, many would now prefer to disclose a raging case of gonorrhea or being born with only 7 toes, than the dirty little secret that they hope to gain employment in the financial services industry, for fear of mocking and scorn. After a group of Occupy Harvard protesters “attempted to disrupt a Goldman Sachs recruiting event at the Office of Career Services” on Monday, though, the school newspaper had decided it’d had enough. A strongly-worded editorial was in order.
… while many experts agree that Goldman was part of the problematic system that created the financial crisis, Occupy Harvard’s targeting of a Goldman Sachs recruiting event presents a facile and trivializing interpretation of the root causes of the economic catastrophe and debases our national conversation on the issue.
They went on.
Obviously, Goldman Sachs is not without blame in the financial crisis. The deceptive and irresponsible peddling of financial products known to be “crap” by their traders stands as a monument to the dangers of an insufficiently regulated financial sector. If Goldman Sachs employees had resisted the kinds of dealing that lead to high bonuses and long-term financial instability, it is possible that the mortgage crisis would not have been as severe as it was. However, to single out Goldman Sachs as a single target of opprobrium for causing the financial crisis is myopic and unoriginal; Goldman has been in the eye of the storm of banker bashing for close to three years now. No one has successfully proven yet that this one investment bank caused the financial crisis and benefited unduly from it. Instead, the bank was simply one actor out of many, and certainly doesn’t fit the role of super villain as well as the Occupy Harvard folks imagine it does. For example, an excellent argument could be made that the millions of Americans who took on mortgages beyond their means are equally responsible as a group for the financial meltdown. Certainly, the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act also figures prominently in our nation’s pre-crisis financial instability. It would be convenient if we could easily paint Goldman Sachs as the evil enemy of the 99 percent, but it’s more complicated than that.
More unsavory, the protest carried with it a strong sentiment against Harvard undergraduates seeking careers in the financial services industry. Perhaps it is not ideal that so many of us go on to Wall Street, but targeting individuals looking at career options in this way is hardly the appropriate remedy. Many students who enter these fields are not the scions of banking families but rather hard-working students looking for a challenging job that lets them experience a newfound financial prosperity. To exhort students to consider their contribution to society when choosing a career is one thing but to target those who want to work for Goldman Sachs misses the point; whatever negative impact the company has on our economy is due to structural issues rather than questions of individual morality. Deterring a couple dozen Harvard students from working at Goldman will not change income inequality nor will it create a more equitable society. Goldman will just hire the next people in line.
Anyway, if the above doesn’t deter anyone from interrupting Goldman’s next recruiting session, maybe taking it up with Larry Summers? He’s generally receptive to solving student body tiffs. In related news, this sort of pen and paper response likely disappointed Harvard B-school professor Lee O. Fleming, who prefers to settle conflicts in a slightly more heated fashion.
Occupy Recruiting [The Crimson via DI]
Related: College Students Hesitant To Reveal Scarlet ‘B’
Also Related: Dartmouth Undergrad Has A Bone To Pick With Ray Dalio, ‘Faceless Hedge Funds,’ The Dartmouth Board, And Peers Who Flock To Wall Street To ‘Perpetuate Class-Based Systems Of Power And Dominance’
You Crimson boys never miss a chance.
the editorial went on to read:
"…eat it!"
Matt writes for the Crimson, too?
Official Occupy Harvard rebuttal:
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man. Try opening your mind and reading some investigative work by Taibbi"
Roll Tide!
Needs more charts!
-C. Walken
Is Occupy Harvard supposed to be ironic?
I needed a thesaurus to get through. Looks like this guy made it through round 1 Bess
Personally, I like it when the squid rubs me with its tentacles
what's the point of going to Harvard if you aren't interested in pursuing a career in law/finance/wall street.
".However, to single out Goldman Sachs as a single target of opprobrium for causing the financial crisis is myopic and unoriginal;"
Jesus. While I agree with your larger point, could you please not sound like such giant douches. First, sentence could have been shortened and simplified (and Matt, I hope you're taking notes) as such: "to single out Goldman Sachs is short-sighted and unoriginal." I'm very happy you got to use your shiny new thesaurus, but give it a rest. And while we are talking redundancy, once you said "single out Goldman Sachs," no need to add that they are the "single target."
–Guy who thinks the writer and/or editor has a very promising career at the WSJ ahead of him/her.
since you were wondering…
"opprobrium"
[uh-proh-bree-uhm]
1 : something that brings disgrace
2 : public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious
Poor poor Harvard grad is going to have to learn that all that idealism, poems about being gay and/or your menstrual cycle, "I went to Harvard" lines ain't gonna get you s–t in the real world.
occupy verbosity
Need more pepper spray
"flagrant abuses of a thesaurus" tag ftw
No – it was a spell used in Harry Potter.
AIG Quant
Don't follow. Can you rephrase in the form of credulous slogans that can be yelled to a drum beat?
~OWS
My penis just went facile.
Many experts agree — Harvard sucks!
Sounds like something we need to look into
–Society for Ethical Treatment of Dinosaurs
access to pretty good squash courts on 44th?
Geaux Tigers!
Actually "I went to Harvard" goes a lot further in the real world then "I went to UCONN".
- UCONN Alum who wishes he went to Harvard.
Golf Clap?
Considering Harvard now graduates kids who are only fluent in awkwardness and math, those are some damn good paragraphs of English.
Ag 'em, Giggies !!
Last time I checked there was no shortage of squash courts in midtown.
I went to UCONN works for me.
-K. Walker
Majoring in English, no doubt?
There ain't no fancy word for a fart that won't make you laugh.
We avoid these hassles by only recruiting from DeVry.
- UBS HR Manager
Hey hey
Don't be dumb
Don't do an
Opprobrium
yeah, "I went to Harvard" is a pretty good start. see groundbreaking study discussed on DB in the past about finance hiring from top schools w/ strong alumni networks.
I think it shows incredibly bad taste for you to embarrass me like this.
Synonyms: obloquy, ignominy, infamy, stain, stigma, Charlie Gasparino
So NOW you take a stand?
Harvard Club does not even have a double squash court.
No doubles squash court = poor man's squash club.
Even the glorified NYSC aka NYAC has a doubles court.
Comments like this would be better suited to sites where the readership appreciates demagoguery.
Would be interested to see what the comments would be like if Bess wrote an article that was posted as Matt and the reverse…
For the record, the scions of banking families are scattered throughout the Rockies/Alps. Poseurs-
-Trustfundless would be ski bum
Got to love the marketplace of ideas. Commies lose, Capitalists win! Capitalists decontent their market offering in response to failure of competitor. Capitalist go too far, marketplace pushes back.
@LarrySum I'm sorry to hear the punchline, "Is it that you go to MIT and can't read, or go to Harvard and can't count?" doesn't work anymore.
Right because you're not awkward at all.
I stabbed a Harvard student with a Swiss Army knife once.
-Guy who lives behind Abercrombie&Fitch Harvard Square
Yes but do you have Hard Racquets? Court Tennis?
I'd prefer they take the Jeremy Clarkson approach vis-a-vis the protestors.
Is there horseplay in the shower room?
J. Sandusky
Excellent quant.
Leave my daughters out of this!
-W. Noel
But was he wearing your Harvard tie?
Only half the students are fluent in math.
Which is? Run them over with a Ferrari or a Pagani Zonda?
Too bad that Dartmouth boy wasn't alone.
-Sandusky
Anyone else find it funny Occupy now has an office building?
What do you mean I have to pay back that $100k worth of student loans I took out to get degrees in Russian literature and silent film making at and out of state school? I can’t get a job, please bail me out?
Yes, yes, Goldman is evil, come work for a company that contributes value to society.
-Rajat, Anil
Got heeem!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-ca...
ty
He out did the comments about Mexicans.
Umm it's just called tennis. The game played by such luminaries of sport as Jim Courier or Boris Becker is "lawn tennis" or "outdoor tennis"
Cock, balls.
[youtube rW-67dLgazg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW-67dLgazg youtube]
Please don't confuses me with your $100 words Harvard
- UBS MD
The fact that this didn't get more likes is an opprobrium on the commentariat of this digital magazine.
In case you don't know what I'm talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIQ9iv3ZkaM&NR...
you're killin' me
Wow. Not just Clarkson– all THREE of them.
Goldman guys have big money and small cocks. Great combo when I'm putting in work.
It only let me dislike this once, but please note that one thumbs down signifies a lot of dislike
Curry = Corruption
You heard it here first
Do you have an actual point, or just an ellipses?
Yep. I was in London at the time watching this with a friend in stunned amusement. The complaints the next day were something to behold. The Mexican ambassador DID complain!
The Matt (Bess) ones would play off the humor of the article and the Bess (Matt) ones would remark on the charts? /people would not be fooled by the experiment since, you know, they have incredibly distinct styles?
TLDR
Fuck everyone who works at GS, and fuck everyone who went to Harvard – I don't trade with the first, and I don't hire the latter.
We like the cut of your jib!
– UBS HR MD
I agree with one of the Harvard commentators:
The issue is an interesting one- Wall Street firms are able to pay their employees tremendous amounts of money because investment banks are essentially intermediaries (middle men) in large financial transactions.
Wall Street is the go between of those who have money (public employee pension funds, insurance companies, rich people) and those who need money (typically corporations to finance acquisitions and buildouts of plants, property and equipment). Financing is a critical part of the economy- but there is very little that is innovative or requires the academic ability of an ivy honors graduate in the sciences.
The grads who go into banking from the ivies aren't necessarily smarter than their peers who didn't apply or those who applied but didn't get in. The lucky few are clever at figuring out how to game the system and engage in effective self-promotion. The happy result is earning levels of compensation that are not possible in "the real economy." Case in point, it is very difficult for a 23 year old kid to add $110,000 of value (typical IB analyst salary) to a large industrial company like GE.
Not too many Wall Street guys could build a lithium ion battery or program Watson. But who cares? The real money is in commercializing other people's ideas. The US economy doesn't really value technical talent. Engineering salaries start high but there is little separation at senior levels for good engineers vs. mediocre ones. Hence, it is very difficult to be a career engineer and earn more than $150,000, even with a PhD. If you're a chemical engineer, you may have to report to an oil refinery every morning for your entire career. Compared to Wall Street guys in plush NYC offices, it is easy to see why that career track seems unappealing.
Smart students see how much tougher it is to major in engineering vs. economics and business, combined with the not-so-great career earnings potential in engineering, so they go the path of least resistance.
There is a lot of money to be made in engineering.
-Abdul Q. Khan
I don't see anything wrong with this.
-Snapple Delivery Manager Midtown
Living in a tent is the NKI
I was impressed to see that he made proper use of the word 'myriad' in his note.
Taking a strong stand from my house at the Vineyard-
Donations up at Harvard thanks to GS bonus history
Capitalist Pig Retired at 40 now sipping delicious chardonnay with feet up on imported ottoman watching MSNBC roast those Wall Street "b%stard$".