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Economy Go Boom

September 15, 2008
Evil Beet
Uncategorized
59 Comments

Wall Street saw its worst day since the post-9/11 aftermath on Monday, with the Dow dropping 504 points on news that Lehman declared bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch was sold to B of A to avoid a similar fate itself. Here are some cute kittens to help you digest that news.

And I’m reading a lot lately about how those “greedy bastards” got what they deserved, and I feel like a lot of this venom is unwarranted. These people are my friends. I have an MBA, albeit the most underutilized MBA on the planet currently, but I spent years in school with these guys. I focused my studies on finance, thinking I wanted to become an investment banker, before realizing that I enjoy banking in theory and hate it in practice. But these guys working at Lehman and Merrill Lynch whose worlds are being upended right now? These are the guys who took me out and got me wasted and told me how hot I was and how awesome I was and made me laugh after my boyfriend dumped me and I thought the world was over. These are the guys who noticed me getting a little too skinny in the aftermath and brought me chocolate and encouraged me to eat it and reminded me that hot chicks have curves. These are the guys who finished my homework for me, no questions asked, when I was too depressed and emotionally wrecked to even think about doing it myself. And I covered for them when they got married, when their babies were born, when they were interviewing for their summer internships at Lehman and Merrill Lynch. These are good guys, and they have families, and if you think raising a family in Manhattan on $200K a year (and remember that half of that goes to taxes!) when you’re working 100 hours a week and still paying off school loans is a life of extreme luxury, think again.

So I’d just urge everyone to have a little compassion in the face of this, and remember that the folks impacted are not all nameless faceless evil gazillionaire playboys, but hard-working, caring, compassionate people with families, just like you. (Some of them are assholes. Those are the ones I’ve slept with. But the rest? Just nice dudes who deserve some compassion here.)

59 CommentsLeave a comment

  • The guys you are talking about are just working stiffs like the majority of us. They are not the power player, golden parachute bastards who caused this mess.

  • Its not the guys and gals on 200K a year that deserve a swipe, its their bosses’ bosses who’ve been spending their time inventing new and creative (and as yet under-regulated) ways to sell off smelly deals by masking the fetid odour with roses – and pocketing many tens of millions in the process – whilst their minions toil, that one might be forgiven for the odd bad thought.

  • Beet: Your’s is not the most underutilized MBA on the planet. That distinction belongs to the mentally challenged chimp currently residing in the White House. Also,I Love those sweet little kitty cats in the photos. Cats are way smarter than people. Even now, you can see them working that helpless look for all they are worth. You go, guy’s!

  • all you talk about lately is politics the economy and other such things. Thats cool that you have your opinions on these things but i mean isnt this a gossip blog? ill watch the news or read the paper for economic information. I dont think there is anyone who comes here for that, and if they do thats really sad.. We come for celebrity gossip and you never seem to have any anymore. Step it up.

  • @jessie:

    First of all, if you think that ALL I talk about lately is the economy or politics, you’re really struggling with your math skills. I’m tired of people telling me that ALL I talk about is the economy and politics, when those posts really comprise a small fraction of the posts on here. They just seem to draw the most interest, comment-wise, which is why I’m disinclined to care when people tell me it bores them.

    And, yes, it’s a gossip blog, and sometimes I feel like gossiping about the economy or about politics.

    Above all, though, it’s MY blog, and it’ll reflect my moods and what’s important to me at any given time and how I’m feeling, and that works out just fine for me. If you’d like straight gossip, there are other websites out there for you to enjoy. I appreciate your readership, but, more than that, I appreciate that writing this website can be an outlet for me and for my concerns, and I will continue to write about whatever the fuck I want, and educated consumers can choose whether or not to support me in that. It’s the economy of The Evil Beet, and it’s actually doing just fine right now.

  • Well…

    I guess good ole Jessie won’t be back…

    Don’t take it pesonally Jess… Its just Gossip.

    HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  • Next she will want us to hug a lawyer. Forget it Beet. I may be willing to sleep with you but not at that price.

  • Thanks for recognizing that the guys getting fucked over aren’t the ones who deserve it, my older brother whose only 25 is one of those financial people, and he works at jpmorgan chase and every fucking day he goes to work he’s scared he’s going to get laid off. Do people honestly think these guys have it easy? My brother shares and apartment with three other guys and is still not living a life of luxury despite the fact that he can get called into work at any time, even when we were on a family vacation fucking 7 hours away. Trust me, if jpmorgan goes down, guys like him totally don’t deserve it.

  • Um. So…if your awesome buddies are people who earned commissions from the sale of shitty mortgages to irresponsible, unreliable people with no way of being able to pay them back then um…your buddies are assholes and yes they are responsible in part for this shitpile we are in. But if not then…I guess they are just awesome dudes who gave you chocolate.

  • Go Beet! Write about whatever you want to. Because let’s face it people, if I don’t care about something on this site I DON’T READ IT! Woo. Novel concept. Leave the Beet alone already.

  • I must say, I must have only met the guys in Manhattan that you slept with, because the majority of them were pricks.

    This American Life and NPR news did an AMAZING story about how the housing bubble burst and how investors at Merrill and the like created the hole that we are in now. It interviewed everyone from the smallest guy out fishing for investors and those needing home loans to the bosses who approved these RIDICULOUS loans and such. I swear, you will come out feeling brilliant and a lot more capable of processing what is going on now if you listen to this.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90327686

    This is a shorter version that ran on NPR. I actually ordered the cd to play for my family so that they would have a better understanding.

    So, with that said, no one “deserves” what is happening since it is happening to not only the guys on Wall Street, who were somewhat complicit in the goings-on. It is also happening to our parents who are watching their 401k’s deplete as the market tumbles. It is happening to us, who will have to have PERFECT credit to buy a home and then at a much higher rate. The whole nation is taking a fall because the guys at the TOP didn’t do their jobs and got greedy!

    BTW, Beet, you blog about whatever you want!! It’s your freaking blog! I found you because you were linked from a political blog that I subscribe to. So you know, I am weeding through all that celebrity crap because I like to read your insights on politics and the economy. Keep it coming!!

  • Go ahead with ur bad self beet!!!!!! Shit im GLAD your writing about this kind of stuff because people who ONLY live and breathe to hear about lindsay lohan’s vagina really need to sit and contemplate their reason for existance on this earth. Then again her vagina and politics do seem to be shaping the future of this country so i guess we gotta put a lot of focus on both.

  • I sincerely hope the U.S. of fuckin’ A will see this through. We most likely will. After all, WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT THE CUTE KITTEHS?

    And people – shuddup about her opinions. They are hers and she is welcome to them. Go somewhere else if ya don’t like ’em.

  • Beet, the economy, politics and now 2 financial giants in trouble… you have seemed to put a spin on it towards the election… hey, it’s your blog and you can do with it as you want… all cool… if no one is seeing anything else, I don’t get it… it’s all here, same blog, little more left, little more serious, but same Beet! Do I agree with your politics, no. do i agree with your sympathies towards the investment bankers, hell yeah(let’s hear some love for the mortgage bankers) Don’t change.

  • Honestly, my favorite posts on your blog are the political and personal ones. I don’t even care that much for celebrity gossip, I just like the way you write about it. I also love reading the heated political debates in the comments. Anyway, I should get back to writing my speech for class tomorrow :( Unlike you, I am NOT good with words.

    Oh, I also wanted to say I am so proud of you for not smoking! Smoking sucks…keep doing what you’re doing.

  • The worst part of this whole mess? The @$$holes who caused it are going to sleep in their mansions tonight, while the rest of us try to figure out how to pay the bills!

  • lol, my hubby’s listening in the background, and like he said, “let’s raise the oil prices” (Gas just went up another 30* here —- omg! This keyboard has no cents sign!)

  • I work across the street from Lehman and my window looks out on them. We’re often waving to each other from across the street.

    It is soooo incredibly depressing. I feel for all of them.

  • Honestly, investment bankers and brokers are scammers, liars, pricks, and d!cks, I know because I am one. We don’t care about our clients, we care about getting paid and making money. If we cared about people we would buy them treasury bonds and index options, instead we put them in shady high fee products (like REITS, mortgage backed securities, managed money) that the house want wants us to push. We are scum and we are part of a conspiracy to to scam people into believing that we can beat the market when we can’t. Our bosses don’t care about our clients, they care about how much they can invest in crappy house products. Lehman is the worst of the worst, they are the ORIGINAL churn and burn firm since Marty Schafiroff in the 80’s. We deserve this meltdown. We are leeches that take a commision on peoples money to do nothing but roll into junk product like mortgage backed securities and crap head/mutual funds!

  • Beet,

    You’re a pal, but I gotta say the don’t-blame-the-soldier argument only sorta works. I mean, it’s not quite the same as blaming the guy at the drive-thru window for the ethical violations of KFC?

    It’s pretty difficult to have much sympathy on someone with an MBA and a $200,000 a year salary , even if it is in New York. People don’t go to business school out of desperation or altruism, but out of ambition. Those 100-hr weeks are supposed to turn in senior exec jobs.

    I think when people like to think “they got what they deserved” it’s because those folks pulling down $200,000 are finally getting a taste of what the rest of the country’s been suffering for many years now.

    d

  • some investment bankers might be “good guys”, but lets face it, they all go in for the money and the “corporate life”. i-banking and related finance is one of the most boring and uncreative professions out there (i have friends who do it and they admit this). most of them sit at their computers working with excel spreadsheets all day.

    as far as those directly involved with the subprimes and mortgages, well, they are responsible for this, whether they saw what the effect would be or not. speculative trading and investing is not healthy for the economy and playing with money that doesn’t exist just shouldn’t be done. people are getting rich off of speculative buying and selling that is harming the us economy overall, and those people should have to deal with the results of their errors.

  • Beet,

    I was really moved by this piece. Until this far I only saw how the economic crisis would affect me in the end, it never even occurred to me that it would also hurt tons of other people.

    And wow, you know how to write..

  • There are homeless people without jobs not sure where their next meal is going to come from.. single mom’s working at McDonald’s to support their kids.. people working two and three jobs just to get by week to week. I’m hardly going to feel sorry for a bunch of business class people working on Wall Street making 200k a year. Somehow, I’m sure they’ll eventually land on their feet.

  • Erin – it’s also happening to people in Europe and the rest of the world who are affected by the American economy. No one intends for stuff like this to happen – it’s greed and lack of foresight that creates these situations. My prayers are for all of us right now, including those bankers. (Brits and Aussies, no jokes!)

    Beet, I enjoy your commentary and find it helpful to read. I’m finding your blog even more interesting since you started talking about politics and the like. Keep up the good work!

  • I feel sorry for these guys, because as Beet was trying to point out these are real people with families.

    I’m in England, and lending and the housing market has just stopped. The calm before the storm.

  • Yes, you’re right, Angela–it’s certainly sad for anybody to suffer. It shouldn’t happen.

    But still, these are not the kinds of folks who elicit an incredible amount of sympathy.

  • Crap Beet, why did you censor/delete my long comment? Do you know how long it took to write that sh!t? Geez…. Why would a blogger delete and censor comments? I have been an avid reader and recommender of your blog for years, but for God’s sake, even Perez doesn’t delete comments…. I’m very disappointed and upset you would do that. Aren’t you one of these liberals who bitch and moan against censorship, then you turn around and do it to your own blog? How rude of you, why not just let my comment stand? Cause it conflicts with your bleeding hard sympathetic stance on the matter? How horrible you would do such a thing:(

  • Apparently Beet has never met a female investment banker. Maybe if you’d stop sleeping with everyone for a second, you’d realize there are actually women professionals who’ve been impacted by this as well.

    And here I thought it was the lefties who were so sensitive about sexism.

  • 99.9% of them are people who are middle class, with mortgages and families, who will be f*cked by this. But you do know that the guys at the top will be just fine, and likely to get a bonus for figuring out how to file the Chapter 11 paperwork.

  • re; jessie

    dear beet,
    i can’t wait for the day that you spank me like you did jessie. all i ask is that you wear a tight black sweater, spiked heels and, if possible, pull your hair back in a ponytail. i bet that bitch won’t give her opinion on this site anymore after that ass chewing.

  • Isn’t it true? You lust after the assholes and befriend the great ones. I guess that’s best because the “good ones” are still around. Remember, they will get back on their feet. Everything works out in the end. You just have to hold on.

  • i meant to tell you beet, but the sweet and adorable kitties in the photo made me so happy. while i was caught in my moment of happiness it reminded me of an article i read about a satanist group in russia that was just caught after stabbing three teenagers 666 times and then cooking and eating them. our planet just gets better and better and better. i’ve got to run and buy the world a coke.

  • Obviously, the majority of these douchebags who think that anyone who works in the financial field is a cold hearted, evil capitalist who deserves the worst is retarded. Not everyone who works in finance is in a position to earn comissions or just take your money and give you nothing in return. Some of these people are analysts who have to sit in front of numbers day after day and deserve credit just for not losing their minds. Fuck that. I back you up on that Beet.

  • um, yeah…they don’t get my sympathy just because they bought you drinks and told you you were cute. that’s all swell and everything, but the reality is these guys are not innocent. they knew they were pushing loans that could not be repaid, etc. and yet they did it in order to keep the money rolling in. do you honestly think they lost one minute’s sleep worrying that people would lose their homes because of this shady dealing? but now it is hitting them in their bank accounts. it hurts when chickens come home to roost, huh?

  • Um, so they aren’t assholes until you bang them? Um, ok. And will you please decide whether or not you want to be skinny or fat once and for all and leave us out of it? Thanks.

  • Hi
    Can I say it bothers me a little bit that you use the collective “guys” for everyone who is now losing their jobs because of the demis of the financial institutions? you said yourself you were studying for your MBA, so I assume there must have been OTHER WOMEN who studied with you and now face cirucmstances just as bad, if not worse (given sexist hiring practices, increased time to promotion for women, and the need for two incomes in a family).

    Maybe they didn’t feed you chocolate, but I am sure they deserve your appeal for sympathy just as much as the guys.

  • Amen – you hit this one out of the park it was so spot on – it’s really inaccurate to blame anyone on Wall Street for the correction. People should notice that the problems in the housing market really originate with the government-run GSE’s – Fannie & Freddie. Chris Dodd & his buddies should be locked up for a long time. Anyone want to hold Obama accountable for an investigation – how about BEFORE you vote? :)

  • I for one, am glad you talk about other things than Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston. That’s why I come here. Your rants about your former college life and the crazy things you’ve done in the past are hilarious. The dog stuff, not so much-but like you said, it is your blog and you can do what you want. I guess what I want to say is that I visit because I never know what you’ll be talking about on any given day.
    And that’s what I like best about you Beet.
    Thanks for the laughs.
    -Bee Hind

  • beet; the fact that you’ve now admitted to your MBA only makes you that much more fuckable in a conquest sense. guys everwhere are going to want to text their buddies the next morning to tell them what it was like plowing the fields of a true MBA that also has her own blog. i love how you don’t brag on yourself in any of your posts. you are super, super awesome and make me feel inadequate in your presence.

  • beet,

    i have to disagree with here. most of these banks are going under because they dallied in sub prime loans.

    in nyc, where i live, there is a serious mortgage crisis in working class communities where families and older folks either bought houses with these loans or refinanced their homes using them.
    This is called predatory lending, by the way.

    these people are now caught in a downward spiral of rapidly adjusting interest rates and we haven’t seen the worst yet. these folks don’t have their mba’s or daddy’s pocket books to fall back on.

    so i say what goes around comes around.