Financial History Issue 116 (Winter 2016) | Page 11
CONNEC TING TO COLLEC TIONS
tombstone in the Museum’s collection celebrates a mortgage deal with quotes such
as, “An Evil Deal with Evil Mortgages. I
Like it.”
Deal toys still have their defenders,
however. Writing for the Socializing
Finance blog, Daniel Buenza, a lecturer at
the London School for Economics, argues
that deal toys are essential to the functioning of investment banks. He states that
because of the fast-paced and competitive environment associated with closing
deals, the teams of junior bankers assigned
to do such hard work need these mementos to serve as motivation and to build
team cohesiveness. The status-building
prospect of collecting deal toys instills a
sense of pride amongst employees.
Regardless of how you view them, these
creative objects offer unique insight into
the culture of investment banking.
The Museum of American Finance has
in its permanent collection more than 300
examples of tombstones, the majority of
which were received in a 2012 donation
from Ed Murphy.
THE TICKER
WALL STREET
WALKS
Sarah Poole is the Museum of American
Finance’s Collections Manager.
Sources
Buenza, Daniel. “No more toys for the projectbased banking deal.” Socializing Finance:
The Blog on the Social Studies of Finance.
February 15, 2009.
“Tracing the History of ‘Deal Toys’ from Lucite
to Brass Balls.” TheStreet. January 10, 2015.
Widdicome, Lizzie. “On Wall Street: Tombstones.” The New Yorker. November 10,
2008.
Wall Street Walks takes visitors
through the historic capital of
world finance — the one-squaremile of downtown Manhattan
known as “Wal