Rumor I heard a month or two ago is that jobs are opening up in financial firms for "quants", since I guess financial firms want some new ideas. Don't really know for sure, though. As far as who to blame for the financial crisis goes, I mainly blame the regulators for not doing enough regulation. (Or whoever may have caused that to happen.) A company has enough trouble trying to figure out how to stay afloat without running afoul of regulators or laws, so I don't blame the companies. --Dan << Now, I've recently been admitted to a graduate program of good repute in Computational & Applied Mathematics. There is a wide range of subjects in which you can pursue your PhD, one of them being Financial Mathematics. I had a passing interest in it for quite some time. In the current scenario, how advisable it is to pursue a PhD in this topic? What would my options be five years down the line? Will the so-called 'quants' still be wanted by the banks and other financial institutions, or will they turn to more 'non-math' approaches? Would I be better off specializing in less volatile areas of Applied Mathematics? In short, what is the future of Financial Mathematics in light of the current financial crisis?" ...

...

_____________________________________________________________________ "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi." --Peter Schickele