Brett Harrison: belief

Transcript context

…Yeah, that's interesting. If you ask the people who work in these firms, what is the social value you're creating separate from the question of what the correct answer to that question is? Would the majority of them say that I'm doing something really valuable? Would they say I'm indifferent to it, but it's earning me a lot of money? What is their understanding of the value they're creating? It really depends on the company, and it depends how diffused the culture is at older firms that have fewer people impacting the culture on any significant way. I think you might not get a clear answer on this thing for a place like Jane Street, where the firm is really run by, like, 30 or so, you know, partners and senior employees who have, like, been there. For a really long time and have carried through the core culture of that company up until the present day. And with that large number of people at the top in a very flat environment have actually been able to propagate that culture and maintain it throughout the company. I think you'll find a much more kind of homogeneous view on their social value, which I think they would say is that they provide the best pricing and access to. Markets that are critical for facilitating capital allocation throughout the world and allow people to very efficiently invest in vehicles that are global in nature. That seems very abstract. And while it is probably very well correct and is very valuable for society, it might not seem that, like, tangible to somebody who's working in that space. Is there some technique that these firms have of making visceral the impact these traders have? I don't know, do they bring out some child who benefit from efficient markets or something?…

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