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My jam-packed week of serious headlines and major market news took a turn on Thursday morning, when a story about four young Wall Streeters in Interview magazine, headlined “Meet the Finest Boys in Finance,” stopped me in my track.
This piece is embarrassing for young Wall Street and for the firms they work for.
I am still worked up, even as I’ve calmed down since my initial shock on Thursday.
These early 20-year-olds are rocking their entry-level Rolex and Omega watches, Celine suits, and Hermès ties, and they’re shouting out how many vests they own. Come on!
I never remember doing this back in my early days as a stock analyst. Maybe it’s because I grew up with absolutely nothing and still live in fear that all my success will be taken away. With that comes a certain humility, I think. Or paranoia. Or both.
“Can you imagine if we acted like that? We respected authority and didn’t have anything to our name and worked for it,” one of my longtime friends in business messaged me.
Nobody on the Street thinks you are cool for posing on a blue couch in your Celine suit. And I couldn’t care less if you were styled for this photoshoot and you own none of the clothes you were pictured in.
The fact is, you represented yourselves, and your firms, poorly. In effect, these young Wall Streeters played into the very reason why many people hate the banking industry — they’re out of touch. And if this is how the entitled next generation on Wall Street is acting today, then the next 25 years for the industry will be grim.
Here are several takes on the interview from my contacts.
“For clarity, you’re 1000% correct that this is embarrassing for the banks that employ these kids, especially senior people at Goldman who’ve been around for a while. But this sort of status peacocking has always been a part of young Wall Street culture; it’s merely gotten more venal and absurd in the Instagram era. And back to Goldman, it’s a hard argument that David Solomon is too upset about this after his ascension to CEO being sold on him as a fine wine collecting, well-dressed, DJ who had standing reservations at NYC’s most expensive restaurants and then bended the board’s arm into buying the firm’s first-ever private jets.”