What If There's No Money to Be Made Working on Wall Street?

It's been reported that Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will be seeing another pay cut this year. This continues a trend in the investment banking industry of constrained pay and cutting-back of jobs. However, looking at fourth-quarter results -- though we don't want to base too much on a single quarter -- it appears that such cutbacks have had little impact on investment banks' performance, as they performed well during Q4.

Looking at the bigger picture, what will it mean for the broader economy if the pay and/or jobs aren't there like they used to be in investment banking? One possibility is that a whole slew of hungry and talented workers, who would otherwise be chasing after Wall Street paychecks, might be inclined to pursue more, shall we say, "productive" endeavors instead. Check out the video below for Fool financial analyst Matt Koppenheffer's take on the subject.

And with big finance firms still trading at deep discounts to their historic norms, investors everywhere are wondering if this, too, is the new norm or if finance stocks are a screaming buy today. The answer depends on the company, so to help investors figure out whether Goldman Sachs is a buy today, The Motley Fool has released a premium research report on the company. Click here now for instant access, and as an added bonus you'll receive a FREE year of key updates and expert analysis as news continues to develop.

The article What If There's No Money to Be Made Working on Wall Street? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt Koppenheffer owns shares of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Barclays PLC (ADR). The Motley Fool recommends Goldman Sachs. The Motley Fool owns shares of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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