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A review by 600bars
Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits by Kevin Roose
4.0
My least favorite section to shelve at work, besides reference, is the Business section. There is barely anything that holds my interest in it because it's almost all self-help psuedospirituality but with corporate aesthetics. So when something actually stuck out to me I had to read it right away. I thought maybe this book would just be tales of debauchery but I was also curious about the time period. I usually feel like I don't need to do reading about the 2008 crash and occupy because I was alive when that happened, but I was too busy caring about middle school drama to be more than vaguely aware of what was going on.
This was a rollicking ride and I loved reading it. I barely have a grasp on what half these terms mean (what is a mortgage backed security? what are options? I only recently fully understood what it means to short a stock) but that's not the focus of the book. You truly could not pay me enough to live like this. It's so hard for me to put myself in these people's shoes because I cannot comprehend having a value system that works this way. It's so depressing (well, honestly it makes me feel a bit of schadenfraude good cheer) that when you break down the ungodly hours these analysts work, they are basically making 15 dollars an hour. You can make that same rate at a restaurant or retail job and still have time to have a life and friends and hobbies. I don't get what these people are even spending money on. They all live in sparse apartments that they never go to, and the only free time they have is spent drinking. What a miserable existence.
Something this book pointed out that I had never thought of was the way the finance industry siphons talent and brains away from literally anything else. I never knew that a large portion of grads who go into the industry are doing so because they don't know what else to do and are aimless (this is very relatable to me, but you will never catch me in a million years going into finance lmfao). The fact that some of the people interviewed were going to go into medicine or things that could actually help the world were instead sucked into this black hole is such a waste!!!!!
It isn't surprising that many people who wouldve gone into finance instead go into tech. Isn't it FinTech now?? seems kinda merged. 10 years ago when the books events were happening tech probably seemed more exiting and more beneficial to the world, but nowadays if you are having a (im)morality contest I'm not sure who would win(lose). We all know how awful FAANG are for society, and there have been several high profile downfalls like Theranos and WeWork that kinda mirror Wall Street scandals like Enron.
Another change that has happened in the last 10 years is the rise of stock trading as a hobby for normal people. Of course that's always been a thing hence "publicly traded company", but I'm talking about the rise of the Robin hood app, crypto, NFTs, r/wallstreetbets. I wonder if the rise of the Reddit Analyst has made more young people go into banking, or if it has made more people realize they can have a regular job and still make some money and get adrenaline rushes on Wall Street from the comfort of their bedrooms.
I remember watching wolf of wall streets in theaters and sobbing because I couldn't believe how awful people were and that any of it was truthful lol
Soo-Jin did not get enough screen time in the book!
I was entertained, I learned things, I liked the author's reporting (especially when he snuck into that Supper Club induction ceremony... I was expecting some Eyes Wide Shut type shit and it's honestly so lame of them that they were doing something as silly as that..... But anyway respect to the author for that one, that was ballsy)
This was a rollicking ride and I loved reading it. I barely have a grasp on what half these terms mean (what is a mortgage backed security? what are options? I only recently fully understood what it means to short a stock) but that's not the focus of the book. You truly could not pay me enough to live like this. It's so hard for me to put myself in these people's shoes because I cannot comprehend having a value system that works this way. It's so depressing (well, honestly it makes me feel a bit of schadenfraude good cheer) that when you break down the ungodly hours these analysts work, they are basically making 15 dollars an hour. You can make that same rate at a restaurant or retail job and still have time to have a life and friends and hobbies. I don't get what these people are even spending money on. They all live in sparse apartments that they never go to, and the only free time they have is spent drinking. What a miserable existence.
Something this book pointed out that I had never thought of was the way the finance industry siphons talent and brains away from literally anything else. I never knew that a large portion of grads who go into the industry are doing so because they don't know what else to do and are aimless (this is very relatable to me, but you will never catch me in a million years going into finance lmfao). The fact that some of the people interviewed were going to go into medicine or things that could actually help the world were instead sucked into this black hole is such a waste!!!!!
It isn't surprising that many people who wouldve gone into finance instead go into tech. Isn't it FinTech now?? seems kinda merged. 10 years ago when the books events were happening tech probably seemed more exiting and more beneficial to the world, but nowadays if you are having a (im)morality contest I'm not sure who would win(lose). We all know how awful FAANG are for society, and there have been several high profile downfalls like Theranos and WeWork that kinda mirror Wall Street scandals like Enron.
Another change that has happened in the last 10 years is the rise of stock trading as a hobby for normal people. Of course that's always been a thing hence "publicly traded company", but I'm talking about the rise of the Robin hood app, crypto, NFTs, r/wallstreetbets. I wonder if the rise of the Reddit Analyst has made more young people go into banking, or if it has made more people realize they can have a regular job and still make some money and get adrenaline rushes on Wall Street from the comfort of their bedrooms.
I remember watching wolf of wall streets in theaters and sobbing because I couldn't believe how awful people were and that any of it was truthful lol
Soo-Jin did not get enough screen time in the book!
I was entertained, I learned things, I liked the author's reporting (especially when he snuck into that Supper Club induction ceremony... I was expecting some Eyes Wide Shut type shit and it's honestly so lame of them that they were doing something as silly as that..... But anyway respect to the author for that one, that was ballsy)