Financial Turmoil Et. Al.

So in light of the recent financial turmoil (no, I am not going to write a post pretending that I have enough intellectual credibility to completely dissect the situation), I just had to share the following blurb from Bloomberg, because it really is quite funny.

From: Bright Side of a Total Financial Market Collapse
Point #4: We have lots of new houses.
Not all of them have people in them, sadly, but that's a minor detail. Even better, no one has had to pay for them, and probably never will.

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On the other hand, as a typical university undergraduate who has been impressioned upon from a young age that i-banking is The Lucrative Industry, the recent financial crisis has got several implications.

1. After hearing from good old cousin Pete (not a real name) that being in the financial industry can earn you big bucks, I have not considered any other career choice.
2. After working on my CV for the past 5 years to get myself a prestigious finance internship in my next summer, it all seems irrelevant now that these firms no longer exist.
3. As I convince myself that fewer firms just means greater prestige and greater competition, the share prices of these firms continue to tumble like a stack of Jenga blocks.

Quite simply, for the average undergrad, I wonder if recent events have just translated into a complete alteration of the all-too-vital internship landscape for next summer. In the coming months, the university career fair will be missing the prominent Lehman Brothers (I think I still have some kind of freebie from them). Other prominent high-flyers might not choose to be there. It's weird how just a couple of weeks ago I had signed up for my internship application account, and now how "I am very keen in experiencing for myself first hand the intensity and excitement in the front office of an investment bank" just seems to take on a whole new level and to be honest, just doesn't quite cut it anymore.

In last year's Asia-Pacific Careers fair which CUMSA organised, only finance companies were featured, with the clear assumption that that was where young undergrads' priorities lay. What I'm keen to know is whether these priorities are going to change in the midst of billions of buckeroos flying left right and centre.

I mean, I don't mean to be myopic, but I think Wall Street should get its act together, for all the recent drama is causing several young and hopeful undergraduates to reconsider their future in a way like they've never done before. That, is peril for the average 20 year old and the future of our nation.