With the city comptroller’s office now projecting a loss of 35,000 jobs in New York-based investment banking and other financial services occupations, what’s the next thing that will drive profits and employment in a Wall Street recovery? In a recent Bloomberg Radio “On the Economy” podcast, private investor David Goldman gave this answer:
There isn’t any next thing. This is the end of a cycle. Wall Street employed some of the brightest people in the world to find clever ways to sneak leverage in under the door, or through the transom, in order to make thin returns look like fat returns. There simply isn’t any demand for that now, so you’re going to have legions of people who were very gainfully employed doing this finding fulfillment in organic farming and other pursuits.