Why are Americans afriad to admit that Wall St. bankers are richer because they are smarter than other people?

I think you may have a flaw in your observation.

Specifically that the folks doing the quants and the systems engineering and the algorithms for multivariant calculus and differential analysis or or Markov chain inference projection techniques, many of which are still proprietary are the ones reaping the rewards. They aren't they are so much chattle to be discarded.

It's called the burn rate - how effectively you manage to get the baby fresh Ph.D to produce before you burn them out so they are so stressed they can barely string numbers together let alone want to or in some cases are ABLE to work for another firm in the same capacity.

That's the skill set - I'll have you know. Making genius into broken geniuses and coffee fetches, make them deliver and break them before you have to cash them in, it prevents them from shopping the market and keeps you in green.

I don't begrudge Wall Street their bonuses. But I begrudge them for an entirely different reason than the complete disregard for their own failures, or their willingness to tout the Friedmanesque perfection of the free market -to the the point of espousing the rather ridiculous ideals of say Ayn Rand, and then in a swoop when it looks like the Lathe of Heaven actually might come their way, become overnight converts to corporate socialism, that's not actually my grudge, that's just an observation of the trillion dollar clusterf*ck they stuck with the US taxpayer.

My problem is the quiet business of destroying the very people Ms. Rand was so happy to lump in with the bankers and industrialists - you know - those actual Ph'D's and engineers who invent stuff.

I'm not a communist, I've just had to salve the professional destruction of more than a few of those quantitative uber-kind who have been discarded like so much bad-luggage when they became inconvenient, I've seen "talent" be promised the moon and the sun, and get screwed.

So I see no reason to celebrate rampant exploitation of the very people that bring the bacon home, that's the difference between a slave master and a capitalist, if you must know.

So the next time you want to talk about the best and brightest - getting what they deserve - I suggest you check out graduate housing at Harvard, Princeton or elsewhere, and see the carnage, if you know what you're looking for, if you're feeling really festive, head over to Landmark Center or just hang out on the wrong side of Harvard Square, Fine Hall and catch up with some of this years failed new stars, commiserating with last years garbage from Wall Street.

Perhaps people think those kids - and most of them are still kids - are getting what they deserve for all their presumptions and having the world on a plate, but as one parent famously put it - don't break them.

There are alot of broken souls lately - viva capitalism - I suppose. Just don't expect the formerly best and brightest to be doing too much cheering or much of that inventing.

That's really the problem, the resource problem. We're starting to run out - not just of Oil or Money but talent, I personally have seen whole areas of national research quietly shelved - because we don't have the talent willing or able to do it anymore.

So most of the kids coming off the burn, can't really do their old jobs effectively, so they work odd jobs, or in coffeeshops.

One guy I'm thinking of who's invented an novel approach to an adaptive genetic algorithm in use presently for Goldman less than 18 months ago is working at Starbucks on Nassau Street, in Princeton across from his Alma Mater as we speak. From my perspective Nassau street is seen by some a a nearly prestigious walk of the heroes of the mind, knowing what to look for, it's more an intellectual skid row.

He's a very broken soul, he's not at all bitter and quite happy he can at least he can hold this job down but he's enfeebled by mood stabilizers and other boosters, to keep him on an even keel more or less, but we probably won't be getting any more cool genetic algorithms out of him anytime soon.

How do I know, let's just say that I didn't get this level of intimate knowledge from a book.

I agree. I do not think most are afraid to admit that some of the bankers are smarter than most. I don't think they have uch of a clue. Luck also helps, as most traders are aware. Timing is everything.

I think that people fail to realize that if a guy is pulling down a $10 million dollar bonus, he probably made the institution at least $100 million in profit. The traders earn their bonuses, as for the CEOs, it is often debatable. It s unfortunate that most Americans don't get it.

Your average broker couldn't write out the formula for a derivative. The Ivy league professor who did come up with it is not on Wall street and did not make the big bucks. In fact, he predicted that the selling of derivatives would lead to economic collapse. The brokers didn't think so. Clearly, they were not the smartest guys around.

No, that doesn't sound at all like capitalism, it is socialism/communism.

Just because someone is smart does not mean they don't fall prey to human frailties, such as greed, corruption, thirst for power...as in the Goldman Sacs guys and sorros. These guys are not capitalists.

they are rich because they make money for shareholders. capitalism rewards those who make money for their superiors. i have never thought they were not intelligent people. they have figured out a way to make vast sums of money basically gambling with the money of others. i have always thought that those who work on wall street have no vested interest in this country or in the people who actually keep this country running. wall street is just a parasite. it produces no real product yet it profits greatly from the work of others. truly an efficient parasite if i have ever seen one.

What's your point?
- Hitler was smart.
- Idi Amin was no idiot.
- Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995, killing 168, and injuring 680, was smart.
- Bruce Ivins, who delivered letters with anthrax spores in 2001, was a genius.
- Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who sent mailbombs from 1978 to 1995, was brilliant.

Did you have any valid point?

They weren't smart they were dealing in junk using other peoples money to get rich. If you think that's smart then you certainly aren't

They're SO smart that they have to bundle millions of dollars in contributions to Barack Obama from his senator days onward to get laws enacted which place them above the law.

That's just corruption.

You must be one of Wall Street bankers.

The liberals need a boogyman to advance their "progressive" or socialistic ideals to scare Americans away from liberals own failures .