<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div class="post-25149 post hentry category-uncategorized entry " id="entry-25149"><span class="timestamp published" title="2011-10-12T17:34:49+00:00"> <span class="date">October 12, 2011, <em>5:34 pm</em></span></span><h3 class="entry-title"><a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/hard-times-on-wall-street/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Hard Times On Wall Street">Hard Times On Wall Street</a></h3><div class="entry-content"><div>A wonderful juxtaposition:</div><div>Max Abelson reports on the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-12/wall-street-sees-no-exit-from-financial-woes-as-bankers-fret.html">sorrows of the financial elite</a>:</div><blockquote><div>An
era of decline and disappointment for bankers may not end for years,
according to interviews with more than two dozen executives and
investors. Blaming government interference and persecution, they say
there isn’t enough global stability, leverage or risk appetite to
triumph in the current slump.</div><div>…</div><div>Options Group’s Karp said he
met last month over tea at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York with a
trader who made $500,000 last year at one of the six largest U.S. banks.</div><div>The
trader, a 27-year-old Ivy League graduate, complained that he has
worked harder this year and will be paid less. The headhunter told him
to stay put and collect his bonus.</div><div>“This is very demoralizing to
people,” Karp said. “Especially young guys who have gone to college and
wanted to come onto the Street, having dreams of becoming millionaires.”</div></blockquote><div>Meanwhile, Catherine Rampell reports on <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/bankers-salaries-vs-everyone-elses/">Bankers’ Salaries vs. Everyone Else’s</a>, telling us that</div><blockquote><div>the
average salary in the industry in 2010 was $361,330 — five and a half
times the average salary in the rest of the private sector in the city
($66,120). By contrast, 30 years ago such salaries were only twice as
high as in the rest of the private sector.</div></blockquote><div>It would all be hilariously funny if these people weren’t destroying the world.</div></div></div></div></body></html>