Monday, October 20, 2008

I'm sorry I haven't a bloody clue

This whole blogging business can be quite grim. Constantly having to appear knowledgable about everything from Bob Dylan to Bruce Willis is rather exhausting. Hence this new series. Where I parade my ignorance. Join me if you can. Let's show off our not-knowingness. Revel in it. Celebrate it even. But certainly not be ashamed of it.

Here's the my first.

I have honestly no clue what investment bankers do. They are fabulously rich and all that. But what exactly do they do during office hours?

Ha! Great to get that off the chest. Next!

13 comments:

A Motley Tunic said...

I wonder the same about all my friends who work.

Nice to get that off the chest.

Anonymous said...

I have no clue what most of those academic researchers (the ones with a ph.d) do either............. seriously i wasted a year trying to listen to them and understand it what a waste of my time...........

Anonymous said...

God bless you for this series, Ammani!

I'm likely to be wrong, but my guess is investment bankers handle investments and M&A for companies, as against retail banks that hold our accounts.

Here's my piece of ignorance: Why do people lose money when stock markets crash? Can't they just hold on to the stocks and wait for the said market to pick up? Err... that's precisely what I'm doing with my single share of HDFC Bank.

Anonymous said...

me too.

I like the series.

-premalatha

Blogeswari said...

Che guavera - why the sudden interest and buzz on Che after four decades?

And yes, the great crisis in the financial market - even after purushan's gyaan 1001 times ,I am still not understanding

Anonymous said...

WINE! Wine connoisseurs who taste in wines everything from fairy dust to recycled newspapers! Bunkum!

Ramesh said...

here is a clue, a close pal of mine writes in a Tamil blog.

here is what she wrote about investment banking! (17 years in it for her)

http://rajnatarajan.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_13.html

(also remove the word verification, it puts off commenting!)

enRenRum-anbudan.BALA said...

They use your hard earned money to make a fast buck and then declare insolvency when you demand your money back :)

Anonymous said...

The most fun romantic way of looking at investment banking is to discover Warren Buffet's personal life. I neither understand investment banking nor know Warrne Buffet that well. But I am dreamy excited optimistic when I read about him! Here is a start:
http://timelessthinking.blogspot.com/2008/05/all-hail-warren-buffet.html

He is the world's richest man. I discovered him first time when he donated money to Gates Foundation.
It blows my mind to think of this man living happily in his own home, in his home town and living his life his way. For me he is Gandhi, has a gazillion things to learn from! :)

It blows my mind when I see how a person can be enormously simplistic and do a giant task, and go back to their native place and live simply!

Moli said...

"Constantly having to appear knowledgable about everything from Bob Dylan to Bruce Willis is rather exhausting"

SO TRUE

umm oviya said...

they invest other people's money and bank on their luck.

Anonymous said...

can't understand those "hedge fund managers"...wha...what hedge...fund...managers aa? clueless i say!

Nithya said...

Here are two that I will never understand.

Zero sum game & epiphany

I have looked it up and people have explained (or at least tried), but still my brain doesn't get these.

Kudos to you for bringing this up.