Sunday, October 19, 2008

Odds and Ends: Lahde Bids Farewell, Grant Vindicates my Eeyore Doctrine, and Noonan Talks Sense

Three small pieces I've enjoyed over the weekend. Odds are this is old news for you but I wanted to share:

Hedge fund manager Andrew Lahde's goodbye letter to investors. I totally hear the "what I've learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it"! in reference to this 10/4/08 WSJ article. (prelude to my pending 'how I feel about investment management' post)

James Grant articulates the unfortunate role of over confidence (aka unchecked optimism) in our current predicament far better than I can. Chew on this fact - since 1983, debt has risen by 8.9% per year in the U.S. compared to 5.9% annual GDP growth over the period. Or, in other words, total debt rose $45.1 trillion while income rose by $10.9 trillion. I find that mind blowing. I can't believe we've survived this long.

And lastly, though I normally steer clear of the WSJ op-eds, I was pleased to see Noonan talk sense about Palin. Palin is the female version of Bush. Enough with the plain-talkin', bull-headed, anti-intellectualism already.

Oh yeah, and on the GSB front, the career office has come out with a very sobering update on recruiting season this fall which just confirms what many of us already knew. It is not looking pretty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would it be possible for you to share some more on the recruiting at GSB? Is it just the financial sector where GSB is seeing a big drop in recruitment or the industry and consulting sector as well?

Anonymous said...

Hello,
I was wondering if I could interview you for a first-person story on a news website about your experiences of doing an MBA – and whether you think it's all going to be worth the study and expense, given the state of the global economy?
If you'd like to discuss it further, please email me at anna.bruce-lockhart@guardian.co.uk.
Thanks and best wishes,
Anna

MaybeMBA said...

Hi Anonymous, Ibanking and IM are the worst hit by far. Consulting seems about flat. Corporate positions are up quite a bit. Overall, listings are down but it definitely varies a lot by area of interest. I really would expect next year's full-time recruiting season to be much better. Incoming students will probably be able to catch a return to normalcy.