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Business Daily

Factual: Money

The daily drama of money and work from the BBC.

Business Daily: Dying to Work

24/09/2013

Dying to Work

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Dying to Work

A bank intern died recently, after allegedly working 72 hours non-stop. Is this the norm?

A bank intern died recently, after allegedly working 72 hours non-stop. Is this the norm? Plus a top US regulator says we are better prepared to tackle the next derivatives bubble.

The death of Moritz Erhardt, a London-based bank-worker in August, after apparently working three days and nights non-stop, has shone a light on the workaholic culture of the modern finance industry. Unpaid junior interns especially, it is claimed, are getting pushed to the limit, many of them routinely popping pills simply to stay awake. Is this what it takes to get to the top in finance? We hear from interns and analysts from the banking sector in London and New York. 

Plus, the outgoing head of the Commodities and Futures Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, talks about what he's done to curb the financial derivatives market, five years on from the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Are these so-called 'weapons of financial mass destruction' still a risk to the global financial industry, given that there are more of them now than back then? 

And, Lucy Kellaway reflects on the future of that great newspaper, The Washington Post, after its takeover by Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.Com.

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