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Wall Street: Profiles in Panic
- Brushfire 18y agoWow. Some choice quotes: -- One former Lehman executive in her 40s stood in her vast clothes closet not long ago, talking to her personal stylist. On shelves around her were at least 10 designer handbags that had cost her anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 each. "I don’t know what to do," she said. "I guess I’ll have to get rid of the maid." -- "Why should I pay $250,000 for a private plane," he said to a friend, "When I can pay $20,000 to fly commercial first class? -- I don't know what to say to or about these people. This article certainly doesn't inspire any confidence that we are bailing out the right people/industry. It reminds me of an important lesson taught by an old economics professor of mine about companies within any industry. I suppose it probably even applies to industries themselves or even countries, although I'm no economist. This lesson was that excess profits are always removed in the long run. If a company is demonstrating excessive profits, then that might be a good sign that the ride has peaked and that the only way from here is down. Apply this to American culture in general, and it paints a pretty bad picture for the future. We are returning to the average...and it's going to be painful ride down. The good news is that I dont get the impression that the averaqe HackerNews reader is in the situation of being at the whims of the idiots like mentioned in the article.
- tortilla 18y agoGreat article. "The good news is that I dont get the impression that the averaqe HackerNews reader is in the situation of being at the whims of the idiots like mentioned in the article." Have you seen my gold plated Macbook Air? All kidding aside, it's amazing the sort of crap people think they need to buy when they reach a certain level of income.