Archive for the 'Economics' Category
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
Depressed, repressed, objectified: are men the new women?
So – although women hold only 17 per cent of parliamentary positions across the globe, despite there being only 10 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and ignoring the fact that it is still illegal for a woman to drive a car in Saudi Arabia – it seems that, sometimes, it is harder to be a man.
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Ibanker seeking …
Al, perhaps, this is one career you may wish to discount?
Hello,
ABOUT YOU:
You are a young and good-looking girl. The parental abuse that you incurred as a child has left you emotionally distant and sexually repressed. You are able to sustain months (y
ears?) of loneliness because you shudder at the thought of human interaction. You have a constant feeling of inadequacy leading to excessive hours on the elliptical machine (and, accordingly, a nicely toned bum). I might do stuff to you while you are sleeping at 4AM (when I finally get home from the office), but, other than that, our sex-life will be nonexistent. Naive girls who have been in long-distance relationships and have had their hearts broken by guys who perpetually cheated are more than welcome to email me; I promise that I’m different.
ABOUT ME:
I am a first year analyst at a bulge-bracket investment bank; this means that I’m either Jewish, Asian, or from old-money (and, therefore, connected up the wazoo). Given that this post is (hopefully) grammatically correct, coherently legible, and satirically palatable, I’d like to think that I got into banking based on merits associated with my intelligence; therefore, I’m probably not from old money and am not connected up the wazoo (sorry).
I got into banking as a result of an overwhelming abundance of insecurities. I went to a top-tiered and prestigious undergraduate university, yet, have always felt inferior to the Harvardites and Princetonians that surround me. I’m likely either short and socially outcasted (with excellent kung-fu skills) or schnoz-nosed and unable to date, as every girl I meet in Manhattan is a UES slut that reminds me of my mother.
I go to the gym every morning, as my unnecessarily ambitious and secretively compensating type-A personality forces me to always strive for the best. That, and also the endorphins released from the exercise keep me elated enough to prevent attempting suicide for at least 24 hours.
I approach dating as I do anything else; as a strict meritocracy where I compete to win. At bars, I won’t tell girls that I’m a banker; I feel that it would be unfair to take a girl home by playing the pity card (”Oh, you work in banking? I feel so bad for you. Fine, I guess I’ll sleep with you.”). I’ll likely say that I’m a math teacher at the Dalton School (my Jewish/Asian heritage helps me here) so that girls realize that I’m piss-poor (as are all my other analyst buddies, despite what we tell our family and friends back home) but have Epstein potential.
My interests include playing brickbreaker on my blackberry, romantic dinners expensed to my firm, and finding novel ways to entertain myself during late-night hours (posting personal ads on Craigslist at 3AM - FUN; getting head from you while you hide under my desk - PROBABLY FUNNER).
If you fit my description (and God help you if you do…) feel free to email me. Pictures of boobs (yours or random ones you find on the internet) would be helpful to include in the email. As I’m posting this with my work email address, I’m hoping to get lucky enough that some back-office rat finds the inappropriate content during a routine inbox sweep, so that I can finally be liberated from this relentless world of superficial elitism. I’m talking about the old-money guys.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/nyc/646020922.html
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
a couple of things.
» from the city of london comes the news that testosterone and cortisol might be controlling the global economy. with all those hormone surges, i’m glad i’m not working in the city or on wall street.
» here is an article from the april issue of good magazine on “eggcorns—a type of common and somewhat logical language goof named after a misspelling of ‘acorn’”
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
everybody come down.
like this article in the guardian.
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Inequality, Inequality, Inequality
Three excellent posts on income inequality by Kathy G, on her excellent new blog, The G Spot.
(Actually there are four posts, but the extra inequality wouldn’t have made for such a good title)
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I read ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ by Mohsin Hamid. Its actually very short and only took me a couple of days to finish. Its worth reading if only because the author comes from a very similar background to us and the story is largely auto-biographical.
My main reason for bringing this up though is that I think the author might be added to list of Pakistani men who think they are a gift to the women of this world. Having said that, maybe I’m being a bit unfair as the love story is a tragic one, especially if its true.
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I found a link for the John Lee Hooker and Friends gig! Seriously, why did no one introduce me to the blues before?? In a very short period of time its probably become my favourite genre of music.