A lot of humility will return

Some wise words from Richard Hartung, a former banker who wrote a piece for Weekend Today. The following is (apparently) only available in the printed edition of this weekend’s Today:

“The market will reprice itself… A boom tends to over-reward everybody as young executives rush in to become investment bankers, private bankers, property agents, stockbrokers, remisiers, personal bankers, etc. During a boom, the good returns from transactions fail to separate the wheat from the chaff, and even the incompetent gets rewarded. Now that the market has been brought back to earth, the system can start redistributing jobs according to real talent again. Young investment bankers will be laid off and the remaining will need real talent to survive. A lot of humility will return.”

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