Tom Hawkins
Second, I would like to know what exactly is bad about a Haskell job in investment banking as a lot of good programmers work in this industry.
It's disproportionate. 95% of the job offerings in functional programming are with investment firms. I believe investment banking is important, but does it really need to dominate a large percentage of the world's top tier programmers?
I suspect it is because it is an industry where software performance matters. Doing things just a bit better than your competitors can make all the difference (and a big difference) to the bottom line. Thus it is an industry that is willing to invest in new technology. Most other industry seems to be conservative; nobody got fired for choosing IBM, nobody gets criticized for choosing Java. Being good enough is usually sufficient, you don't have to be best, or even better.
Is computing the risk of derivative contracts more important than pursuing sustainable energy, new drug discovery, improving crop yields, etc.
More important? - I don't know. More willing to invest in software quality - apparently.
(Yes, I realize that's were the money is [...])
Exactly. I don't think this is bad: having talented people recruited to work on functional programming will improve the technology for all of us. -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants