Peter Woit, of Not Even Wrong blog and book fame, (if you think YOU hate String Theory…) has a post today about the job market for particle theory physicists. As expected, the number of tenure track positions are down. He remarks that, despite the role that physics-trained quant jockeys played in the debt monstrosity we are suffering from, financial firms are hiring PhD’s in physics.

I like how he skirts the question in the comments of why financial firms that played such a large role in the current economy are one of the few places hiring.

Many wrong-headed ideas are contained in all this. See if you can identify them all. I’m not referring to the picture below.

The reference to government employees comes from this.

from Brian Giberson at Indigo Arts.