In the minds of purists, bankers are sellouts, and academic economists are the hygienic embodiment of finance with principles. If you’re a young person working in banking today, you may therefore like to know who your unadulterated academic competitors are. Fortunately, the IMF has just published a long list of them.
You can see the full list here, courtesy of IB Times. According to the IMF these are the 25 young economists who will do most to shape our thinking of the global economy in future. Like bankers, many have been to top schools (MIT, Harvard, Princeton, London Business School). Like bankers, they are international and they are multilingual. Hardly any are women. Unlike bankers, however, the so-called ‘young economists’ selected by the IMF look positively decrepit in commercial financial services terms- some are 40+ , which goes to show just how long it takes to make a name for yourself in academia.
Who’s on the list? Think Thomas Piketty at the Paris School of Economics. Think Justin Wolfers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and University of Michigan. Think Thomas Philippon, a 44 year-old French economist at NYU who studies, ‘the interactions of finance and macroeconomics.’ The youngest names on the IMF list are 31 year-old Melissa Dell at Harvard and Oleg Itskhoki at Princeton. Maybe academia isn’t so hot when you consider that there are 28 year-olds managing big hedge fund portfolios.
Separately, financial research firm Coalition has identified the banking business in which you do not want to be situated during 2014. It’s foreign exchange (FX). Coalition says FX revenues at major banks fell 35% in the first half of 2014 versus the first half of 2013. So, either FX bonuses will be slashed or FX jobs will be annihilated. Or both.
Meanwhile:
Credit Suisse would like to stress that its leveraged finance team is having, ‘the best year ever.’ It’s just hired Alison Howe, a senior MD from UBS and plans to make some more senior hires before December. (Financial News)
BNP Paribas has been bolstering its hot new electronic trading team (by shunting people around internally). (FX Week)
The European Markets and Securities Authority will need to hire 14 people next year. Don’t all rush to apply. (Financial News)
Brian Moynihan is neither as charismatic nor as handsome as Jamie Dimon, but he has been doing some good things at Bank of America. (Fortune)
How to speak like a banker – straddles, carry, cheetahs and bear hugs. (The Times)
Russian computer hackers may have targeted JPMorgan. (Bloomberg)
For a brief moment, Jamie Dimon appeared to appear on Twitter. (BuzzFeed)
Jefferies’ CEO is a fun guy. (Dealbreaker)
Mike Bloombeg and Dan Doctoroff are fun guys, also. (YouTube)
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