Once upon a time Andrew Lahde was a hedge fund whiz kid famous for turning the subprime housing crisis into 1000% gains for his investors. Last week he confirmed everyone's fear of a rapidly approaching Hedge Fund Apocalypse (or species-wide bankruptcy of the soul, at least) by sending out the most glorious 2AM break-up letter of our time, a two-page "I quit" rant to his associates and investors. It includes damning words about privileged fools whose trust funds now line his wallet:

I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not wothy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.

Contemplation on the nature of capitalism, advice for government reform, and a paean to marijuana (which explains a lot):

Ah, the female. The evil female plant — marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So why is this innocuous plant illegal? [...] This policy is ludicrous. It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources.

Basically, this is the clearest signal possible that everyone with wealth and/or employment in hedge funds should bail immediately. Choice blogsphere commentary and The Complete and Unabridged Andrew Lahde Goodbye Letter, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Outsourcing is here, it's growing, and it kind of sucks. First it was limited to low level work: call centers and their ilk; things American college grads weren't competing for. But now, more and more, outsourcing is rapidly encroaching on jobs that have historically gone to Ivy League students: analyst positions at New York investment banks.

According to a recently published article in the Times, Wall Street's woes have fueled a bona fide bonanza of work in cheaper locales like India and Eastern Europe, where the research tasks that were once handed to newly-minted college grads and M.B.A.'s for salaries in excess of six-figures can be had for a fraction of the cost.

At India-based Copal Partners, which "churns out equity, fixed income and trading research for big name analysts and banks... business is up about 40 percent this year alone." Similar upturns in work have been seen by other third-party firms as well.

It doesn't seem like outsourcing will stop just there:

After research, the next wave may include more sophisticated jobs like the creation of derivative products, quantitative trading models and even sales jobs from the trading floors... In the future, executives in India like to joke, the only function for highly paid bankers in New York or London will be to greet clients and shake hands when the deals close.

More sobering quotes for all you finance types after the jump.

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According to statistics I just made up, but which are probably true, almost %65 of Ivy League graduates go on to work in the financial services industry. At many Ivies September and October degenerate into grim rituals of greed and acquisition on behalf of both students and recruiters. Here are some unintenionally hilarious recruiting materials I found on the floor in Princeton's library.

After the jump -- "12:00 p.m. Lunch with a referral at her private club. She's wearing a velvet headband and pearls. I gear myself up for a very polite tutorial."

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