I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Ever wondered how someone like Marc Correra can pocket millions and millions in so-called “finders’ fees” connected to lucrative investment deals with the state?
His special skill, as I understand it, was in helping identify investment opportunities with New Mexico’s biggest public investment or pension funds and his private equity fund employers?
Specifically, according to Trip Jennings story earlier today, Correra “shared in up to $16 million in finders’ fees as a third-party marketer on dozens of state investment deals involving the State Investment Council and the Educational Retirement Board, state records show.”
So if you’re curious who decides that Correra’s services are worth so much, you’re not alone. Me too.
Now, economics 101 says that a well-greased labor market values workers according to the intersection of supply and demand for their services. But according to University of New Mexico economist Kate Krause, there’s something else going on here
“That is always a big mystery, why some people make a TON of money doing something that looks pretty easy,” Krause begins her e-mailed explanation.
She adds that we should think about the market for third-party marketers a bit differently from your run-of-the-mill labor market.
Don’t think of it as a typical labor market, where there is a plentiful supply of folks willing to market investment instruments, so the wage should be some kind of supply and demand determined outcome. These jobs are obtained and hired in what we call “thin” markets — few people have the skills, connections, etc to do it. Or at least the people who HIRE them think so.
Robert Frank, a behavioral economist, calls these elite jobs part of the Winner-Takes-All Society — where just a handful at the very top earn multiples of what everyone else earns. Everyone wants to hire the same person so that individual’s wage is bid up. Like the basketball coach at UNM!
The other possible explanation is that it was a commission sort of deal — like real estate agents. They get a lot when a deal goes through, but nothing if it doesn’t. So they have to be compensated for the risk of no income.
Either way, Correra is awfully well compensated for his time. Just like Julia Roberts or Peyton Manning, I guess.
