Earlier this week, you’ll recall, if you read this site, we regurgitated the news that Bloomberg and the Schumster had issued a report heralding the death of Wall Street. “60,000 jobs” and “$25 billion” and the need for “looser European-style regulations” and “F Sarbanes-Oxley” was the gist of it (we think—we kind of just glossed over it). Today the New York Times and FT both run “everybody calm down, it’s not going to be that bad” pieces, suggesting that, while New York won’t be the God of All Things Financial anymore, it’s not going to hell in the hand basket Mikey and Chuck would have us believe.
At NYT, Jenny Anderson writes:
Like London’s, all markets can always be improved. And the United States markets are in need of improving. There is near-unanimous agreement that Section 404 has had dire unintended consequences. Global investment banks could lower the high I.P.O. fees they charge in the United States. The federal government could fix immigration issues so that people can flow more easily into and out of New York.
But New York will also have to accept that it will be a leader among global financial centers rather than the leader.
At FT, Richard Beales comments:
Talk of New York's demise as a financial centre is absurdly premature…
We’re not here to make trouble (that’s a lie) and Anderson and Beales generally sound like they know what’s up, but if New York isn’t in trouble then why did Eliot Spitzer essentially read the report, get up, and jump ship? The guy who, up until a few days ago, could be counted on to nail Wall Street's inhabitants for J-walking and public urination (we actually agree with the vigor of his prosecution on the latter). Doesn’t his sudden and radical departure mean we really are up to our necks in feces? It’s got to. It’s like if John Carney were to—and this is just a for instance—endlessly go on about the wonders of Jameson then suddenly stopped drinking…
From: John CarneyTo: us, among others, who have a vested interest in his drinking habits
[yada, yada, yada]
-C-bombs
PPS: If you really want to know more about what it's like to be laid-up with lots of broken bones and pain, well it's no big deal. Really. But there's no loot, there's no booze and it's no fun. But the Tossers said it better than I can. See for yourself below.
On second thought, maybe Anderson and Beale are right that Wall Street’s not dead—it’s just got a few broken bones.
About Those Fears of Wall Street’s Decline... [NYT]
On Wall Street: New York's thicket of complicated rules [FT]
Posted by Brunswick School , Jan 26, 2007 5:11PM
"The federal government could fix immigration issues so that people can flow more easily into and out of New York."
Yes! I can't believe I agree with the NY Times!
What the authorities need to do is to make immigration easier so that cultured people with money, education, good breeding, and skills can easily flow INTO New York and people without these qualities can flow OUT OF New York.
Of course, because in recent decades New York City has become a Third World cesspit--a veritable "Calcutta-on-the-Hudson," a sprawling concrete shanty town for every grasping misfit from Santiago to Lagos to Beijing--the outflow will greatly exceed the inflow. But eventually New York will benefit.