The 2012 US Presidential Election Results: Financial Apocalypse, Round 3?

I’ve gotten a few questions on the 2012 US election and how the results – another 4 years of Obama – will impact the finance industry.

While I had fun writing the Occupy Wall Street post last year and pissing off a whole lot of people reading it (but mostly random visitors who wanted to complain…), I haven’t had the chance to do anything like that this year.

So let’s get started.

First, I’ll admit who I voted for and why… and then we’ll get into the implications of the election both for the economy as a whole and for the finance industry specifically.

The Truth

To Leave, or Not to Leave: Is That the Question?

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the countless work hours for models and bottles,

Or to take back weekends against an office of czars,

And by opposing be without work?  To beg: to borrow?

Well, I wouldn’t quite go that far: Hamlet wasn’t exactly talking about ­­­freeing oneself from the world of finance, but his original words can definitely be applied to the present day: To be, or not to be: that is the question.

There’s no shortage of news on the current state of the US economy and the outlook for jobs: it sucks.

To make things even worse, everyone agrees that the climate will get worse before it gets better. And if you’re in high finance, it’s arguably much worse; you have even less financial security than usual, banks are rescinding offers or freezing hiring altogether, and the work environment seems more volatile than ever before.

These days I’ve been running into more people in finance than usual who absolutely hate almost every aspect of their jobs.

Whether it’s sheer boredom from the work, (NEWSFLASH: some jobs in finance are about as intellectually stimulating as walking a straight line), disappointment in their career progression to date, their paycheck vs. their hours worked, or a maniacal boss or co-workers, everyone appears to have a well-deserved gripe.

But I usually hear nothing about the proper exit strategy from unfulfilling jobs. When I ask a person in finance who’s unhappy with their work just how long they intend to stay in their current role, I’m reminded of another popular Shakespearean quote: “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow…”, because they have no exit strategy.

Got Protests? Why the Outside World Hates Wall Street – And What to Do About It

Yes, you read that headline correctly: this is a post about current events (sort of) and what’s going on in the world today.

I don’t like to write these types of articles because the content quickly goes out of date, but these protests are hard to ignore completely.

Plus, it’s a fun break from writing about the usual topics here and I get to rant about silly anti-capitalists.

Let’s get started and learn why everyone hates Wall Street so much, where it all began, and what to do about it.