Ezra Klein
The Washington Post
Graduates of elite colleges gravitate to Wall Street jobs mostly because their liberal arts educations “are failing them,” said Ezra Klein. Sure, finance pays well and promises a high-status city life. But Wall Street’s real attraction is that it offers an easy destination for smart, hard-working kids who haven’t been provided with “any better ideas about where to go.” Many students at prestigious schools are encouraged to study English literature or political science; only when senior year rolls around do they realize that they have no marketable skills. “The finance industry takes advantage of that confusion,” promising to give them “the skills their university education didn’t.” Wall Street firms have made applying for a job just like applying for college, and they sell themselves as a “low-risk opportunity” for landing a high salary. All the deans deploring finance’s irresistible pull should wake up to their own responsibility to better prepare their students for employment. Graduates don’t choose Wall Street over making another contribution to society. “They go to Wall Street because they’re not sure what other contribution they can make.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Issue of the week: Car dealers’ showdown with Teslafeature Tesla's direct-sale business model is coming under fire in New Jersey and many other states.
-
Issue of the week: Has Washington defeated Wall Street?
feature The Dodd-Frank Act forced banks to sell off “many of their classic ‘Wall Street’ businesses. How are the banks doing?
-
Issue of the week: Is 2014 the recovery year?
feature Economic forecasters generally think 2014 will “be a breakout year” for the U.S. economy.
-
Issue of the week: Signs of a true recovery
feature Could the economy finally be back on track?
-
Issue of the week: The economy’s new normal
feature Are we in “a permanent slump?”
-
Issue of the week: When is inflation just right?
feature Though it has been battled in past decades, some economists believe a little inflation is good for a weak economy.
-
Issue of the week: The rise of a part-time economy
feature The economy has created new jobs for the 34th month in a row, but most of them are low-paid and part-time.
-
Issue of the week: A disappointing jobs report
feature The economy added just 88,000 jobs in March, less than half of Wall Street’s expectations.