A decade ago, when senior bankers tired of Wall Street they usually headed for the golf course, a hedge fund, or public service, usually in Washington. But this week Ruth Porat, a rare senior woman on Wall Street, announced that she is leaving her role as chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley — not for the administration of President Barack Obama (though the Treasury did talk to her about a job) nor for a hedge fund (a field where she was also in demand). Instead, she is off to Silicon Valley. Ms Porat will be chief financial officer of the mighty Google.
The move is symbolic on many levels. For one thing, it shows how big tech companies such as Google are scrambling to increase their financial acumen and gravitas as their balance sheets grow in size and complexity.
It also shows where power in the American economy is moving. The revolving door of the capital’s financial bureaucracies is spinning more slowly: Wall Street has become cynical in recent years about whether Washington can ever get anything done. The allure of finance is also dimming, since hedge funds are struggling to make good returns in a low-interest rate world, and large banks are growing more like boring utilities as post-crisis regulations bite.