GUEST COMMENT: The Chilean miners are an inspiration for redundant structured credit bankers
I don't blog or tweet - I don't think much of what I have to say is of widespread or even limited interest. So please consider this a one-off remark possibly worthy of ignoring, but here we go....
I found it unusually moving to watch on television late last night the first of the 33 trapped Chilean miners being rescued and re-united with their families.
I know personally of some people in my corner of the banking industry (structured credit) who have had a tough go of it through this seemingly interminable credit crunch. Of course, most people working in structured credit, even those who have come through it relatively unscathed, must have felt at times like being dragged through a very long hedge. I know too of people who have lost their jobs, a good chunk of their net worth, in some cases their families and self-esteem along with it.
Being a banker, I'm not into banker-bashing and I don't subscribe to the notion that every member of this sector deserved what they got. They are, after all, individuals of varying skill, dedication, accomplishments and character. Ok, some were more deserving of their fate than others. And bankers as a whole don't seem to be an overly-altruistic lot. Some of them are about as altruistic as a lamp post, but still deserve due regard for whatever other merits they might possess as an
individual.
But being a banker, I hypothesized the following trade: would one swap the experience of being trapped deep underground for "just" 69 days without certainty of rescue in exchange for living through the credit crunch, which for most structured credit bankers probably began in late 2006?
Let's call it a "pain-time" swap where the floating leg is pain and the fixed leg is the amount of time one has to experience it.
Well, in terms of risk and return, I don't think the trade has a lot of merit when you consider what those trapped miners and their families must have thought during their first minutes, hours, days and indeed weeks. Their fear and misery was probably on a different scale altogether when compared with even the most grisly experiences of being a structured credit banker, or ex-banker, in a bear market.
Watching those fellows emerge from the "Phoenix capsule" and hug their families
certainly puts things into perspective, especially when one considers what bankers, even in the bad times, can earn relative to miners.
How to rescue fellow bankers
That being said, there is no Phoenix capsule for bankers and other people who lost a lot through the credit crunch. And when you peer beyond the world of banking, you probably can see many more victims who might be even more undeserving of their fate, and in need of much more help, than bankers.
If there is a Phoenix capsule for these people, it might be in the form of extending a helping hand to them - mentioning a job opening, providing a reference or maybe just having a quiet word with someone you know who can help them in some way.
So if you know someone who you think might feel they are trapped in a deep hole, you might
consider proactively extending to them a helping hand - not everyone can swallow their pride and ask for help and not everyone will know that you can. The more hands people see reaching down toward them in their "hole", the easier it is for them to grab hold and climb out.
I like the metaphor of the trapped miner dilemma for some victims of the Great Recession who feel they're underground with no chance of escape, notwithstanding that the metaphor is flawed by the fact that the trapped Chilean miners really had to confront life and death circumstances. Then again, maybe I am just sleep-deprived from staying up so late to watch the events unfold on television....
