Monday, September 29, 2008

End of Investment Banking ??!!

Bankers,Economists and Financiers, pardon me for my lack of knowledge of finance if I said something weird !!

With the last two giants in IB, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, foraying into retail banking and said that investment banking is no longer viable for them, I started to wonder what might happen to the scores of Investment Bankers, wannabe-IBs - all who spent a good time of their life with the sole aim of becoming one. What's going to happen to all the top tier schools (even worse for the middle-tier bschools) that were/are known as "IB Strong schools". What's going to happen to all those 2nd year MBA students(a few who I know) with offers from the bankrupt Lehman Brothers and the sold-out Merrill Lynch and even worse, with the collapse rate of a bank/day(including the bailed out AIG, Fannie Freddie and the cheaply sold out WaMu) what's going to happen to all the Wall Street aspirants and the most dreaded thing, what's going to happen to Wall Street ITSELF !!

Are we going to see the US become a 90's Japan(with the whole financial market crumbling down) or even worse, are we going to see Great Depression II !!! So much for subprime mortgage ?? I know that recovery measures are underway in Main Street with the plan to use $700 billion for controlling the market but is that going to help? I am not going to delve into this matter, as I dont know the outcome nor the subtleties involved.

I think , if this is the status in the US , what's happening in the controlled environments of EU. I dont read a lot of this stuff, but I guess there are serious repurcussions in the EU too. We'll have to wait and see how the mystery unfolds.

But , Every cloud has a silver lining . These are indeed turbulent times but at the same time interesting too. The whole of finance industry will no doubt undergo a complete transformation. Ten years from now, banking will never be the same again, veterans wont be able to recognize the state of the industry and future generations might not know what it was like in the 00's.

I hope, there's some learning from these disasters. People studied the Great Depression and came up with laws and policies, they studied Japan's financial markets and came up with models, Five years down the line, I think professors, financial planners and experts are going to come up with models ,formulations and analyses of what went wrong now and teach the same to wannabe-(what would they be called??).

Monday, September 15, 2008

Oops I did it again!!

First of all , I'd like to thank the very first visitors to my blog. You guys made my day, as I nver thought someone would visit my blog which hasnt got anything worthwhile and I need to apologize to those very few visitors to my blog for my absence.
I've been going through a storm raging in my head regarding my bschool application, and as the topic of this blog suggests, I , once again, have decided on not applying this time. This is my second time when I have shortlisted my schools, talked to alumni, spoke to my recommenders, started off with the goals/why mba essays and then decided on not applying.

Well , atleast this time, I guess there is a strong reason to support my decision as I was made to think about my application by a bschool alumni and my decision was backed up by a few other current bschool students too , so I dont regret doing so.
And my dear readers, the very few precious people who voluntarily or involuntarily, have visited my blog, I will explain my reason in its fully glory within a few weeks as the reason is not fully ready yet.

I'd just like to wish the very best to all the current bschool applicants with whom I couldnt share my application follies and joys. But may be as a junior to you in bschool, I could take your advice in the following years :)