Wall Street

Why the Market plunged: Two scenarios

Wall Street went haywire yesterday, zooming down 1000 points in a 17-minute period for reasons that are still unexplained. What we do know is that the mechanized system failed, causing a huge blip in the heartbeat that keeps corporate capitalism alive. The machines took over for a moment, and chaos ensued.

One possible key may be found, however, in reports on the bizarre incident. These cite the interesting fact that several large MORE

Wall Street protects the American Dream

Our Republican brothers having fallen before the scythe of temporary public opinion, the debate in the Senate has at last been joined.  Today we line up behind Team Lloyd and strap on our best pinstripe, wing-tips, and chrome domes. The future of irrational, unseemly wealth is at stake. We have partied hard in the past and awakened to some bad mornings after. But those cotton-mouthed sunrises have done nothing to dim our MORE

The lesson of Goldman Sachs, or How the lizard will shed its tail

It's amazing what expensive messaging can buy. The first wave of publicity surrounding the SEC case against Goldman was fierce and damning. Now what we're seeing is their Public Relations dollars at work. The conversation has shifted, have you noticed? What was huge, solid outrage against Goldman has moderated, and thoughtful (if bald) heads are prevailing.

Of course Goldman took short positions against its long bets on the real estate market. Wasn't MORE

Skip the recession, get an MBA?

It happens every time the economy hits the skids: Huge numbers of MBA wannabes line up to go back to the classroom. Are you considering going back to school, either to switch careers or ride out the recession? If you're an MBA student or graduate, what do you think was most helpful in getting you admitted? Did going to B-school pay off for you?

Dear Mr. President: About those bonuses...

Word comes today that you find the nearly $20 billion Wall Street paid itself in bonuses (boni?) this year excessive and "shameful."  I can see where you might think so, unaccustomed as you are to the needs of moguls, executives, lawyers, bankers, traders and other folk whose lifestyles require an annual infusion of cash to keep them going.

There's so much suffering going on across our nation right now. The maintenance of MORE

Shut it down. Now.

We don't let people drive who are drunk. We don't allow people to operate heavy machinery when they're on psychotropic medication (except in California). Wall Street and its associated analysts, brokers, traders and investors are simply too stupid to operate at this point. So let's not let them.

Laid-off banker? Where to job hunt

Now that Goldman Sachs says it will lay off 10% of its employees, there will be 3,260 more bankers pounding the pavement, writes Fortune's Anne Fisher in her Oct. 23 Ask Annie column. Have you been laid off from a Wall Street job? Any advice for laid-off bankers?