Over my time working for EGB desks I was always a Software Developer, and software is the part of the industry I know best. Code written in banks is not especially different to other places, although there is a difference in attitude. This starts before a person even joins a bank.
Time for another rant. I recently read this Forbes article suggesting that the short-term financial tools learnt by management during their MBAs are killing business. Having finished a MBA, I completely agree. As well as the financial indicators mentioned in the article, we were also taught to focus on cutting a company down to its core competencies and thus raising return on equity. Strangely it was always assumed that management was a core competency. I think this was related to the teachers attitude towards students.
There was a split in the lecturers that taught us business. Most were faculty in other departments. We were taught law by a professor from the law school, accounting from the accounting department, economics from the economics department and so on. These people just taught the subject at hand - normally very well. However, the "core" MBA classes (management, strategy, etc) were taught by the business faculty and they seemed to have an agenda beyond the syllabus. They saw themselves as wise men teaching the next generation of world leaders (because business defined the world). They were Aristotle educating Alexander. One lecturer of strategy particularly epitomised this mindset. He taught us to "think like a CEO". This seemed to be a solitary uber-man guiding the firm singlehanded and with precise execution - success or failure was solely his reponsibility. I didn't like his Randian/Nietzschean worldview (I got a below average mark - the worst of my degree). Most students appeared to lap it up. He told them what they wanted to hear - they were special, destined for greatness and the cost of the MBA was money well-spent. Other business lectureres clearly held similar views.
I can easily imagine those students that succeeded in business by luck, skill or most likely both, did come to see themselves as special. We were also taught that having a strong sense of personal agency was correlated with business success. However so is believing failures are caused extraneous factors. Success is yours, but failure is not.
Assuming senior management see themselves as the source of competitive advantage can explain much of modern business' more egregious practices. Huge bonuses, we are the one who make the money. Outsourcing, those people aren't needed. Perks, we deserve it. Isolating senior management from other employees, they have nothing of value to contribute.
While in Cornwall we visited the Nathan Outlaw Restaurant at the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock (eponymously named for its occasional TV chef). Strangely there are two Nathan Outlaw restaurants at the hotel: a two Michelin star restaurant only serving a tasting menu; and a no star al a carte seafood grill. Preferring choice we booked at the grill.
We first noticed the restaurant was completely empty. Of course a rainy Monday night at the end of November in Cornwall is about as off-peak as it is possible to get. Still it was surprisingly to see it was just us and a single waitress. Needless to say the staff were attentive, but they were also professional yet friendly. Two hours later when we left, there were 8 other diners in a place that could easily handle four times that number.
I had the onion soup for starters - fine but nothing special. My partner had the largest and most flavoursome mussels I have ever tasted (but I only got a small taste). We both had the char-grilled Gurnard fillets as our main course, with crab sauce (as recommended by our waitress). I had never even heard of this fish before, let alone tasted one. However, I can proclaim it tasty! The beautifully cooked fillet had a quite solid texture (for fish) and had a very slight earthy/gamey taste. It went well with the sauce. Dessert was a delicious chocolate sponge. It all came to around £130 with a bottle of wine and service charge - not bad by London standards. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.
Calculating the price of an EGB bond has to be fast. A big bank may have 400 or so European bond obligations and the quotes need to be recalculated quickly when the market moves. It is possible to recover from incorrect prices on D2C markets, with their negotiable RFQs. However, if an executable D2D quote is wrong then the trader will likely lose money.
