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Changing Times in NYC
By Jay | November 27, 2007
I work in Investment Research, and the last few months have not been optimistic ones for our research analysts. In fact, the tone lately has been downright apocalyptic. It hasn’t helped my own optimism to see what has happened to my 401k over the past few weeks. I’m down more than 20%. Unfortunately I’m locked into a good bit of my stock and cannot sell.
Yesterday I read on Yahoo Finance that Citigroup may lay off up to 45,000 workers in the next few months. 45,000. That is a huge number. Imagine the impact on New York City…..especially if the other banks follow suit.
I’ve read a lot about the subprime crisis on various blogs. Mortgage Implode is a regular joy to read in the morning. But New York City’s housing market and economy have been booming and the rest of the country’s real estate troubles have seemed far away, almost not real.
In the last couple weeks though I’ve sensed a shift in peoples’ mentality here. Restaurants have not been crowded lately, even on weekends. The stores seem emptier than normal. People seem to be cutting back.
At my job there have been more closed door meetings than normal, and less talk of our department’s “roadmap” for next year than there usually is at this time. I can tell that my managers are nervous. My bank has not announced any huge losses yet, but I have a feeling that there is more bad news to come from the finance industry.
It’s going to be a tight Christmas. This is not a time to take chances with my finances.
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Topics: New York City |
November 27th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I think everyone is feeling the pinch. As you read, I am trying to get my act together with my finances as well - so Christmas will be really light. It is amazing here in CA - so many people are drowning in their mortgages that the atmosphere is downright hostile…