Marc Andreessen has a great post on the collapse of the Sowood hedge fund recently. Reading this I have a weird sense of deja-vu. LTCM collapsed while I was working at Credit Suisse First Boston in Canary Wharf, London. CSFB lost about $700 million. Around the same time the Russian economy took a dip and they blew another $600 million. There were no layoffs and no pay cuts.
If I ever decide I need the security of a day job I’ll go back to London and work in Canary Wharf. The London banking sector is the most bomb proof industry on the planet. Canary Wharf is also a pretty darn cool place to work.