
Wall Street: Profiles in Panic - bd
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/wall_street200901?printable=true&currentPage=all
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Brushfire
Wow.

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
Great 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.

