“Chen, a former vice president in equity research at Bear Stearns, heard a lot of sarcastic comments when he went home to the Bronx for Christmas, where his family of 36 gather each year. When the story of another bank closing was broadcast on a TV, a cousin muttered, “Good riddance.”
“A lot of my family are small-businessmen who own restaurants and Laundromats,” Mr. Chen said. “They just see Wall Street as overpaid and they don’t have a very clear idea of what it does. I try to explain that there’s this intimate connection between Main Street and Wall Street, that banks were created to provide liquidity for small businesses, so they can expand.” His relatives listen, but seem unconvinced, Mr. Chen said. “It’s kind of tiring having the same conversation over and over again.”
but his entire business was designed to divert capital away from REAL investment and into exotic CDO’s, CDS’s, SIV’s etc!!!! And the reason they “don’t have a very clear idea” of what Wall Street does is that the entire structure is built to make its workings more opaque to regulators…they don’t call it a shadow banking system for nothing.
I’m sure it must be so “tiring” to listen to these boring launderers and waiters, while he enjoys his luxe multi-million dollar pad, a candidate for early retirement if he could manage to live like a normal person off the interest of his holdings.
the most tragic part of it all may be that the very thought of living like normal people might seem like prison to these tycoons.
Check out the self pity of the bankers in this new york times story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/business/03bankers.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
“Chen, a former vice president in equity research at Bear Stearns, heard a lot of sarcastic comments when he went home to the Bronx for Christmas, where his family of 36 gather each year. When the story of another bank closing was broadcast on a TV, a cousin muttered, “Good riddance.”
“A lot of my family are small-businessmen who own restaurants and Laundromats,” Mr. Chen said. “They just see Wall Street as overpaid and they don’t have a very clear idea of what it does. I try to explain that there’s this intimate connection between Main Street and Wall Street, that banks were created to provide liquidity for small businesses, so they can expand.” His relatives listen, but seem unconvinced, Mr. Chen said. “It’s kind of tiring having the same conversation over and over again.”
but his entire business was designed to divert capital away from REAL investment and into exotic CDO’s, CDS’s, SIV’s etc!!!! And the reason they “don’t have a very clear idea” of what Wall Street does is that the entire structure is built to make its workings more opaque to regulators…they don’t call it a shadow banking system for nothing.
I’m sure it must be so “tiring” to listen to these boring launderers and waiters, while he enjoys his luxe multi-million dollar pad, a candidate for early retirement if he could manage to live like a normal person off the interest of his holdings.
the most tragic part of it all may be that the very thought of living like normal people might seem like prison to these tycoons.
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