Morning Coffee: Why investment banking is the best career for young people. MBAs complain about their schools

Investment banking pays less than it used to. It's less prestigious than it was. And it still involves long hours. - But it's the best career path for young people. At least, so says an ex-banker, economist, journalist, and self-confessed Marxist.

In a blog post yesterday, Chris Dillow, a former economist for a Nomura and columnist for the Investors Chronicle, listed four reasons why young people should pursue a banking career. Firstly, he said that if you can't be certain that a job will make you happy, you might as well go for the money. Secondly, the opportunity cost of working rises as you get older and become aware that time is running out - so you might as well make money early on and have the option of downshifting as you age. Thirdly, it will be easier to leave Goldman Sachs to work in a charity or become a teacher than it will to be become a teacher or work in a charity and leave to work for Goldman Sachs. And fourthly, given that there's no certainty that good jobs will exist in future (they might all be taken by robots), it makes sense to chase short term rewards.

Separately, Poets and Quants has been looking at what MBA students say when they complain about their MBA schools. At London Business School, the gripes centre around students' alcohol consumption, the state of the gym and an excessive focus on finance and consulting careers. At INSEAD, the careers service is deemed inadequate. At Wharton it's mostly US students and you spend so much time studying that there's no time for networking. And at Columbia there are just too many activities and clubs and no time to attend them, which is apparently stressful. For the full list of complaints, click here. 

Meanwhile:

CMBS jobs will be hot in Europe in 2015. (Bloomberg) 

25% of the MDs who just got promoted at Bank of America Merrill Lynch are in Europe. (Financial News) 

So, FICC trading isn't rebounding after all. October was, "difficult," say Deutsche Bank's analysts. November was better, but not good enough to offset the horribleness of October. (Bloomberg)  

Nomura has discovered that a pure agency trading model (matching buyers and sellers) doesn't work for equities after all. Clients also want banks to hold equities for sale on their own books. Several traders who'd transferred from Instinet to Nomura to implement the agency model are therefore moving back again. (Financial News)

There could be some more equities sales and trading redundancies soon. This is especially the case in Europe, where commissions are expected to drop as banks are forbidden from including the cost of research in trading commissions. (Financial News) 

UBS's co-chief currency dealer, Niall O'Riordan, has been told he's under investigation for currency rigging. He was suspended (with full pay?) by the bank in 2013. (Bloomberg) 

Jose Marques, the New York-based global head of electronic equity execution at the bank, left one day before Thanksgiving. (Bloomberg)  

Traders may not have to pay LIBOR fines after all. - The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) missed its deadline. (Bloomberg) 

Pity the people working in funds of hedge funds. Their industry seems to be dying.  (IBTimes) 

Bob Diamond says things are great. Now that banks aren't investing in expanding their businesses, he's free to buy everything himself. "There are opportunities in financial services that there haven't been [seen] for 20 or 30 years." (Telegraph) 

London's most affordable commuter towns. (Telegraph) 

Urban trampoline will allow commuters to bounce to work in London. (ITV)