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     Ashton Side Hero Username: Ashton Post Number: 9389 Registered: 05-2008 Posted From: 66.90.104.94 Rating: N/A |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/24/wall-street-excess- is-back_n_788043.html Wall Street bankers hiring a dwarf for an over-the-top bachelor party in Miami. Nieman Marcus selling out its 100 limited-edition $75,000 Camaros in three minutes. Socialites dropping $40,000 on a custom cellphone at a jewelry store in Chicago. An investment analyst at Goldman Sachs who hired hip-hop queen Lil' Kim to perform for his 1,000 guests at his annual Halloween party last month. What is this -- 2006? Though the unemployment rate remains near 10 percent with millions of Americans about to run out of their jobless benefits, one in five Americans are using food stamps to buy groceries and small businesses are being forced to slash their work forces to stay alive, Wall Street's top bankers and wealthy investors are spending to excess, indulging their every whim. The New York Times reports: Two years after the onset of the financial crisis, the stock market is recovering and Wall Street's moneyed elite are breathing easier again. And this means in some cases they are spending again -- at times cautiously, but sometimes with a familiar swagger. They're doing that, knowing that the biggest firms on the Street -- Goldman, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan have set aside $89.54 billion to pay their employees. Bonuses on Wall Street are expected to increase up to 15 percent, according to data from a report by Johnson Associates, a consulting firm. And all of that spending is good for luxury retailers and services, from steak houses and plastic surgeons to real estate agents in the Hamptons and high-end jewelers. "The aspirational shopper has been murdered; the mainstream shopper has problems," says Howard Davidowitz, a New York-based luxury retail consultant and investment banker told Crain's Chicago Business. "But the Saks shopper? The Neiman's shopper? As long as the capital markets continue to perform, sales will be tremendous." |
