Letter From Wall Street

[dastahl]

I thought a new thread would be in order and bingo a friend on Wall Street sent me this letter to the occupation movement.

Quoted Letter

We are Wall Street. Its our job to make money. Whether it's a commodity, stock bond, or some hypothetical piece of fake paper, it doesn't matter. We would trade baseball cards if it were profitable. I don't hear America complaining when the market was raoring to 14,000 and everyone's 401k doubled every 3 years and the value of their house doubled every two years. Just like gambling, its not a problem until you lose. I've never heard of anyone going to Gamblers Anonymous because they won too much in Vegas.
Well now the markets crapped out., and even though it has come back somewhat, the government and the average Joes are still looking for a scapegoat. God knows there has to be one for everything. Well here we are.
Go ahead and continue to take us down, but your're only going to hurt yourselves. What's going to happen when we can't find jobs on the Street anymore? Guess what: We're going to take yours. We get up at 5am & work till 10pm or later. We're used to not getting up to pee when we have a position. We didn't take an hour or more for a lunch break. We don't demand a union. We don't retire at 50 with a pension. We eat what we kill, and when the only thing left to eat is on your dinner plates, we'll eat that.
For years teachers and other unionized labor have had us fooled. We were too busy working to notice. Do you really think that we are incapable of teaching 3rd graders and doing landscaping? We're going to take your cushy jobs with tenure and 4 months off a year and whine just like you that we are so-o-o- underpaid for building the youth of America. Say goddbye to your overtime and double time and a half. I'll be hitting grounders to the high school baseball team for $5K extra a summer, thank you very much. So now that we're going to be making $85K a year without upside, Joe Mainstreet is going to have his revenge, right? Wrong! Guess what, we're going to stop buying the $80K car, we aren't going to leave the 35% tips at our business dinners anymore. No more free rides on our backs. We're going to landscape our own back yards, wash our cars with a garden hose in our driveways. Our money was your money. You spent it When our money dries up, so does your.
The difference is, you live off of it, we rejoice in it. The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee might get their way and knock us off the top of the pyramid, but its really going to hurt like hell for them when our fat a**es land directly on the middle class of America and knock them to the bottom.
We aren't dinosurs. We are smarter and more vicious than that, and we are going to survive. The question is, now that Obama & his administration are making Joe Mainstreet our food supply . . will he? and will they?
====================

I usually stay out of these discussions Oh well.
Skooch

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Let's see which media grabs this and runs with it....

 

[Boatsb]

Not that I am taking any sides but when was the last time a wall streeter put in a hard days work. I don't see them doing too much of the work around their homes and I certainly do not see too many people missing their "better than you" attitude. If they had to live and work like regular people I think I can handle it. There is no reason for the huge dollars they cost us so that they can stay "super rich".

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Bob , if the "people" did not trade shares etc in the market, then these guys would not have a job,if they are paid on performance, what's wrong with that, and it costs to hire sharp minds and willing to work long hrs, I don't feel sorry them but, it's the free market at work, maybe some poor homeless guy thinks you too are too well off ???

 

[Boatsb]

But why did they get bailed out when they lost their a$$ets? My point is they did not take the losses they created but they surely kept their incomes and wealth when the bailout came. Let them make the money but let them take the losses too. I don't feel bad for them when they make millions for years and then have a bad year or two and plead poverty.

 

[OBXTucker]

Not that I am taking any sides but when was the last time a wall streeter put in a hard days work.

Scott, I'm assuming that you consider a "hard days work" as getting ones hands dirty and working the muscles....because most Wall Streeters work their a$$es off and put in long hours - otherwise, they DO starve.

Case in point: One of my best friends was the head economist for Goldman. Spend about 20 years there making a LOT of money for people. And not just rich people either. Teachers, firefighters, small business owners (through 401k's), and of course those more well healed. In those years, he probably averaged 12 hours a day in the office pouring over investment numbers and essentially making his best "guess" (and damn good ones at that) to assure the people (or funds or pensions or 401k's) whom entrusted GS with their money received a nice return on their investment.

His family paid the price. He rarely made his sons hockey games and rarely took vacations. On a rare weekend retreat to the Outer Banks (their first trip there), he was having breakfast at a local greasy spoon alone and had an epiphany. He was DONE with Wall Street and the long hard hours. He was done not spending time with his kids (and soon to be grand children).

He walked across the street, hired a real estate agent, found an ocean front lot and bought it (all in this same morning). Came back to the hotel and told his wife he was quitting his job on Monday. He was totally BURNED OUT. Stayed true to his word too. They built their home down there and live there almost full time.

He teaches Economics at several prestigious universities in NY and Boston, while his wife manages a battered women's clinic in Manhattan.

Yes, in fact they DO work their a$$es off....and in my opinion, he deserved every penny he made (and also deserved it when he wasn't making any bonuses).

 

[Boatsb]

I never said they didn't earn their money. I said that they did not deserve to keep the big salary while they bankrupted the company or the country. I have seen many of them over the years when I worked on their boats who could not handle an actual job outside of selling intangibles. Making money from nothing didn't turn out to well for us in the real world did it?

 

[jim rosenthal]

When you consider how little of anything is actually inside a bubble, it's amazing the mess it makes when it bursts. Interesting thread.

I don't think all Wall Street guys are the same; painting them as identical does everyone a disservice. Some of them are driving taxis, remodeling houses, working retail, etc etc- just trying to put food on the table, like we all do. Some of them are trying to relive their former glory days (Jon Corzine, who's about to hit the wall and vaporize his career, if he hasn't already done so- he's going to be the mother of all has-beens)- and I suppose some of them will try to keep on doing what they've been doing. After all, there still IS a Wall Street- smaller than its former self, but still there.

What I don't think is that we all ought to be scared of these folks coming and taking our jobs. I'm not worried about some preppie walking into the emergency department and taking over my job, or anyone elses. We work just as hard as they do, maybe harder in a lot of ways, dealing with things they can't even begin to understand. They know nothing about risk compared to us. A bunch of numbers on a page? Please. Not understanding what those numbers mean is what got them into the current mess in the first place. If they think they can do everyone elses jobs, they are welcome to try. Sure they can- by turning into something they weren't to begin with. If they want to become us, they can do our jobs- just like if I wanted to get an MBA and learn what they do, I could be them. Which I don't.

 

[krush]

sounds like an internet trolling letter to me made for lulz.

 

[oldawg]

I said that they did not deserve to keep the big salary while they bankrupted the company or the country. I have seen many of them over the years when I worked on their boats who could not handle an actual job outside of selling intangibles. Making money from nothing didn't turn out to well for us in the real world did it?[

They sell intangibles and you work on boats. They can't work on boats and you can't sell intangibles. There should not be any animosity over the career choices we make. The people I know in the financial services biz work their tails off. I view them like highly paid artists or athletes. You deserve what you can find someone to pay you (with all the attendant personal costs and risk).

I think what causes the hard feelings Is the interference of our government on the process. If you can't fix boats, or there are no longer boats to fix, you go broke or find some other place to use your skill set. The big financial institutions should have been treated that way. Our gov't, and it pains me deeply to say it, took another path starting with the prior administration.

I think there is an unnaturally close unhealthy relationship between gov't and big finance that should be changed.

I would also point out, had we let the big institutions fail, the big losers would not just be the owners and employees of the financial institutions. Real people, through various investment vehicles, would have borne the brunt of the losses. While extremely painful, this should probably have ens allowed to happen as we, as individual investors, should be more prudent (or at least a bit more informed) about our investment choices. As it is we will pay for it anyway through higher taxes, inflation, or something else.

Just another opinion and probably worth exactly what you are paying for it.

 

[Boatsb]

Everyone has a choice of their career. Even hit men and politicians. Just because they choose a career that is against the good of the country we should allow it because it's "legal". Yes there are plenty of traders that earn their pay just like doctors and chefs but there are plenty of them that took the money and ran. When they cried that they could no longer support the extreme lifestyles they previously they got a bailout. If they had been allowed to fail we would have been better off.

Remember the banks were too big to fail. Then they bailed them out and they bought other banks and got even bigger. That was just such a smart thing.

I fix boats, sell boats and sell high end electronics. 5 years ago I had moved to only 1 job but when the money started to dry up I just went to work harder and I made up the difference. I wish I had someone to bail me out but I don't own a senator.

 

[OBXTucker]

Damn, I really want to chime in here.....
Nope...<reminder to self> "Remember your resolution"

 

[labrador]

Aw comon Jeff, just like a new year resolution, BREAK IT and chime in!!! I need some blood pressure medicine and it gives me a thrill!!!!!

 

[MikeP]

"Damn, I really want to chime in here.....
Nope...<reminder to self> "Remember your resolution""

Hang in there - I'm trying to NOT post as well. Since I'm following your excellent example, I suspect that if you fail I will shortly do the same.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Remember......prior to Iceland letting it's banks borrow against low equity there was little appetite
for banks here to do the same, remember Iceland went bankrupt because of what the Government did, when a Government loosens the regulations to encourage borrowing and investing the the borrowers and investors go hunting for prey, if the license allows it, they bag it, when cooked it may cause terrible indigestion and in some cases death, so, who is to blame for letting the cat out of the bag ???

That is what happened in a nutshell to the Western economies, proving again that a smart, "well" educated public is the best ammunition against these failures but we do not have that in place. The pleasure principle takes over and the feast begins.

 

[oldawg]

Fellas jump in.... The water is just fine.

If you read posts carefully there is probably more agreement than disagreement.

Our govt did more than "loosen regulations". They created Freddy and Fannie to create credit availability to people normal prudent investors/bankers wouldn't loan to and actively fueled the frenzy. It was a social experiment that sounded good at the time. Home ownership was the American dream.....who could be against that? Bad idea.....way bad. Every time our govt gets involved, whether it is social engineering or Wall Street engineering (think bailout), things get screwed up.

For most of the history of the USA we have relied on our system of laws and the reasonable judgement of our citizenry to get by on. I sincerely hope we can get back to that.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

It is so difficult to turn back economic give aways..Greece is a prime example though really a window into the Eurozone..if they don't bite the bullet it will take us all down..and i don't think they will..

 

[sportfish 45]

If I owned a lot in NYC and pitched a tent on it and moved in I would be told to leave. No CO no utilities no permits etc. If I refused to leave I would be arrested. So why is this allowed to happen? I understand the right to protest but no such right exists to occupy and set up residence.

 

[Canuck Dennis]

It's only the middle class that really suffers, we are easy pickings, law abiding tax paying hard working "stiffs" ??..proof of the pudding..who gets it in the neck ?? and if you protest too loudly,,why..you are a terrorist...

 

[sgharford]

If I owned a lot in NYC and pitched a tent on it and moved in I would be told to leave. No CO no utilities no permits etc. If I refused to leave I would be arrested. So why is this allowed to happen? I understand the right to protest but no such right exists to occupy and set up residence.

Cover of NY Post this morning http://www.nypost.com/archives/covers/. Bloomberg has been such a pussy… probably doesn't want them on his front step. I read yesterday a restaurant owner had to let 5 of 20 people go as protesting and police action has deterred business, said he will have to close shop soon if it continues. I'm sure other business owners share the same grief in the area. I was in Boston over the weekend and visited the "Occupy Boston" site. As far as I could figure, there are about 125 tents sent up to occupy every inch of ground with only about 20-30 people actually "occupying" it. Why these miniscule events get so much political and media attention for so long. Perhaps Don Henley said it best - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bBWBG9r2o