The End of Wall Street as we knew it?
This is so crazy but it’s definitely true. Many of my friends who are still in banking are not pleased with their salaries and bonuses. They are thinking of getting out of the industry for good!
Great article in New York Magazine titled The End of Wall Street As They Knew It.
After surprisingly successful financial reform, public vilification, and politics that have turned against them, the Masters of the Universe are masters no longer.
On Wall Street, bonus season is a sacred ritual. It is the annual rite where net worth and self-worth get elegantly reduced to a single number. During the 25-year boom that abruptly ended in 2008, the only principle that really mattered come bonus time was how you ranked against the guys to your right and left. The system was governed by a kind of atavistic justice: You eat what you kill. From the outside, the seven- and eight-figure payouts that star bankers earned could seem obscene, immoral even. But on the inside, the outlandish compensation reflected a strict, almost moral logic. “Wall Street is a meritocracy, for the most part,” as a senior Citigroup executive put it to me recently. “If someone has a bonus, it’s because they created value for their institution.” The sanctity of the bonus was built on the idea that Wall Street pay was simply the natural order of capitalism.
And so, among the many dislocations Wall Street has suffered since 2008, none may have been more destabilizing than the headlines that flashed across Bloomberg terminals on the afternoon of January 17, when news leaked that Morgan Stanley would cap cash bonuses at just $125,000. A week later, Bank of America announced that it would be cutting the cash portion of its bonuses by 75 percent, giving the rest in stock. All across Wall Street, compensation is crashing. Goldman Sachs, coming off a lackluster fourth quarter, slashed compensation by 21 percent.
Banks have always had occasional bad years, but the sense on Wall Street is that this bad year is different. Over the past several weeks, I have had wide-ranging conversations with more than two dozen senior Wall Street executives, traders, bankers, hedge-fund managers, and private-equity investors. And what emerged is a picture of an industry afflicted by a crisis it would not be flip to call existential.
The crash four years ago was shocking enough to the financial class. But what is happening on Wall Street now is even more terrifying. No doubt the economy itself—the crisis in Europe, the effects of the tsunami in Japan, America’s sputtering recovery—has played a large part in the financial industry’s struggles. But even the most stubborn economies improve eventually. The bigger issues are structural. The Dodd-Frank financial-reform act, much maligned, has already begun to change the shape of the financial system—even before a number of its major provisions are proposed to go into full effect this coming July. Banks are working hard to interpret Dodd-Frank’s provisions in a way most favorable to them—and repealing Dodd-Frank is a key piece of Mitt Romney’s campaign platform.
Continue reading the rest of the article at NYMag.com
Reminds me of one of my favorite movies, American Psycho!
Great Movie! American Pyscho starring Mitt Romney. You must see it if you haven’t already. As you all know, I came very close to marrying my own American Psycho many years ago. Watching this brings back so many lovely memories from our special relationship. The call girls, the lying, the cheating, the narcissism. If I had a nickel for each time he passed a mirror and checked himself out, I would never have to work again. A word to the wise: if a man has more grooming products than you do and is more concerned with his appearance than yours, run for the hills before it’s too late! The Wall Street Banker is becoming extinct thank god. Mitt Romney is stuck in the 80’s with that image and hair style going on. He could’ve perfomed a cameo role in this movie and it would’ve gone right over my head.
Jaymie this was a great article. It is the end as we knew it. I know so many out of work bankers who can’t find a job or they receive offers that were cut in half. I don’t see it coming back anytime soon. Lots of financial instruments created in the good years and made traders and bankers very rich are now dead and buried. We are not going to need big banks that charge exorbitant fees anymore. Not when you have online options (and more being created) to cater to businesses and consumers. One day companies will probably be able to issue their own stock online right from their website without the expensive need of a middleman. The world is changing and it’s interesting to see who will keep up. Nice taste in men too. I just adore Christian!
The Cobb Salad Cad
You just know that this guy was standing behind you on the “Cobb Salad” line at work checking out your ass(ets) with his hair slicked back from his 5:30AM workout. Cobb Salad was the health food of choice for that suave banker of the 80’s. But he has been happily married to the same frumpy woman for over 25 years (or in Mitt’s case 45–oh chucks he almost forgot–seems like the honeymoon was only yesterday)! who still looks and acts like his mother and he worked at the same firm for over 20! Ah, there is nothing quite like stability and really fitting in! I’ve actually met him and almost married him twice. In a place like New York City, you will meet him over and over and over again. In the late eighties up to around 2000, the place was swarming with them.
Mean
So many people think that ‘American Psycho’ is a horror film when in fact it is actually a satire and a hilarious and truthful one at that. If we aren’t serious and careful enough, this scammer may be running our Country. God help us all! Show your support for Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich today.
Go to http://www.newt.org right now and show your support!
My 2012 Healthy Cobb Salad Recipe for the nice guy in your life:
Ingredients
10–12 oz organic smoked turkey (or chicken) diced
2 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
4 oz crumbled blue cheese (low fat)
1 bag organic baby salad greens (5–7 oz)
8 oz pre-diced tomatoes
1 avocado, cut into bite-size pieces
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (11-oz) cooked whole fresh organic corn(drained)
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/3 cup organic honey
1/2 cup cooked organic turkey bacon pieces (turkey bacon)
Prep
•Chop eggs; cut up avocado and meat.
Steps
1.Whisk together lime juice, mayonnaise, and honey; set aside.
2.Arrange salad greens on platter. Make rows in this order: blue cheese, corn, tomatoes, turkey, bacon, avocado, and eggs; top with dressing. Serve.