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Crazy Week on Wall Street
By Jay | March 16, 2008
It’s been one of the craziest weeks at work that I can remember: first, Elliot Spitzer resigning and then Bear Stearns imploding. While none of this affects my job directly, I work in Equity Research and am in the middle of a lot of information flows, and am around a lot of people who are highly plugged in.
What stands out about this week more than any other week I can remember is the sense of uncertainty. I’ve been through other weeks where I saw more fear (9/11), more massive financial hits (Enron/Arthur Anderson), and more of a sense of emergency (LTCB in 1998), but the different thing about this time is that no one is talking. The information flow seems to have frozen along with the credit markets, and that has a lot of people spooked.
Even as I browse the internet today it is hard to get much insight into what is happening in the markets. Those who do know are being very careful about what they say.
Let’s hope that the Fed and the banks are able to contain the situation this weekend and over the next few days. What’s that cliche saying — “The night is always darkest before the dawn”? Well, I won’t be buying stocks just yet, but the time to buy may be very soon. The big Wall Street banks report their earnings next week, and they will be ugly. But once they have been reported, the worst of the news may be over. We’ll know soon enough.
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Stumble it!
March 25th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Jay, I found your site when I clicked on your “tree” icon while you were reading the same article on seeking alpha that I was. Interesting observation from the inside. From here on the outside, it seems that the whole danged system is like Enron. The banks and the big firms and the Government are all in it together to pull the wool over us ordinary investor’s eyes. Take Care, Joe.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I used to think that way, but I’ve realized that it is just as hard to navigate for those who are in the system as it is for those who are outside of it. The system is the system and everybody is trying to do the best they can.
And the uncertainty is permeating all levels.