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<p>Well, I’m not so sure about that. It really depends on your perspective. The one thing about the industry (pre-crisis) was that strictly from a technical / ability / “brainpower” perspective, it’s hard to deny that the industry attracted the best and brightest minds.</p>
<p>But as we all know some things just go hand in hand – e.g. money and greed (i.e. the fact that the industry has always attracted more than its fair share of arrogant, superficial, greedy folks was always something that just "came with the territory) – but let’s put that part of the equation aside for a moment – let’s say you are a CEO or CFO and you want the best advice possible whether its a capital raising exercise or an acquisition, etc… do you really care whether the banker across the table goes home and lights his Cuban cigars with crisp $100 bills? Would you rather have a “nicer” guy who might not be as sharp but charges you a lower fee – “he’s just happy to do the work”?</p>
<p>Call me a pessimist but I don’t think there are that many folks out there that had a deep love of the work regardless of the pay. I mean let’s say we lived in a society where no matter what you did, everyone got paid the same amount of money… how many corporate lawyers and investment bankers would be left? I think we might truly find out what that number might look like over the coming years.</p>