3 ms·

To be honest, yes, I think that's exactly what's happening. As with the former presidents as well. These companies are happy to shell out a few hundred grand be

To be honest, yes, I think that's exactly what's happening. As with the former presidents as well. These companies are happy to shell out a few hundred grand because that's chump change for them and now their employees get to brag to their friends that they heard a talk from Janet Yellen last Tuesday. Celebrity speakers (and I have no doubt that in the world of finance Yellen is a celebrity) are a nice employee perk. I could be wrong here, what do I know. But that's my read on the situation, and it's why this sort of thing doesn't bother me that much.

mattkrause 6y ago
Goldman Sachs posts their talks on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIyiGQywEp655v2qh-3mxm2AT12EKkr6h https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIyiGQywEp655v2qh-3mx... They're often interesting, but they're fairly anodyne: a famous author talking about their recent book, a CEO talking about their successes or new focus on sustainability/diversity/etc, some broad perspective on current events. You can see how Goldman folks might benefit a little bit from knowing about (say) the likely timeline for vaccine roll-outs, but you could get much of the same info from an hour of NPR. However, meeting the person seems like a nice perk or recruiting/marketing tool.