The consensus from a recent American Banker analyst roundtable was that banking is
"I have been in banking for 17 years and due to the current compliance environment, I would never recommend it as a career choice," said "dkelly." Similarly, "spedro" wrote: "After 30 years in banking, I still love what I do. … But the compliance bureaucracy and government regulatory inconsistencies make it a field I would not pursue if I were a young person today."
But one reader did raise her son to be a banker: "He knew when he was in 2nd grade after going on a tour with his class to a bank," said Mary B. And "rchiddy" wrote: "I would be proud if my daughter were to become a banker.… The media has significantly contributed to tarnishing this honorable profession by poorly differentiating the investment banking industry from actual bankers."
Speaking of media, a recent BankThink post about the HBO movie "Too Big to Fail," which dramatized the bailouts of 2008, prompted
"The question is why did [the government] not see it coming" said jimsturgeon. "Filippon" responded: "Plenty of people saw it coming, but only government could have stopped it … maybe. … Funny thing is that it is still not over yet."
"Billgamo" asked: "What about the failure to ensure that the $125 billion given to the banks at the end of the movie would be then loaned out to consumers?" Perhaps the sequel will address that.
