February 26, 2009--Bring In the Wall Street Clowns
It’s obvious that one of the hardest hit local economies is Wall Street itself. Not just the source of so many of our economic woes, the economy among traders, brokers, and investment bankers has been devastated. Lives have been threatened and ruined. And at all levels. For every million-dollar bonus grabber, at least a dozen lower-level employees have lost their jobs and often their savings.
Out of frustration, outrage, and fear it has been easy for politicians, late-night comedians, and even me to take pot shots at these former masters of the universe while not paying as much attention to the tragedies that have befallen more ordinary citizens.
But I can’t resist one last shot. I then promise to move on.
While Northern Trust executives, after receiving $1.6 billion in taxpayer bailout money, try to defend spending millions last week on an extravagant golfing junket in L.A. that featured entertainment by the likes of Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire and the ever-righteous Sheryl Crow, back in the Wall Street trenches former workers, not wanting to have to move back in with their parents, struggled to find new livelihoods.
The government of the City of New York, worried about the ripple effect of so many laid off workers, instituted a $45 million retraining program.
Michael Wilson, a local reporter for the New York Times, had a little fun with what that new program might include. (Article linked below.)
As with all such programs, job counseling will play a big part; and the first thing these kinds of counselors do is to see if the skills someone acquired in his or her former position can be transferred into a new field.
So, Wilson, suggests, since so many tourists still flood into the Big Apple and want tours of the sights, who better than former Wall Streeters to show people around the financial district? The founder of Big Onion Walking tours, in fact, says they have received résumés from the no longer-employed. It appears, then, that the new program is off to a good start.
Then there may be life serving as butlers for some after Wall Street. Yes, the still more-or-less rich do have them. They earn anywhere from $70,000 to $150,000 a year. Not big numbers by last summer’s downtown standards, but that was then as this is now.
Why might former banking executives have skills that would make them good butlers? I wouldn’t know never having had a butler, but Wilson assures that most important to the butler trade is having good management skills and thus the suggestion.
Though he mean-spiritedly points out that there might be some awkwardness in the situation—after being used to having others light one’s cigars, it wouldn’t be easy being on the other end of the match.
But then again, still in the realm of cigars, former brokers who enjoyed lighting up at the end of the day might seek work at a high-end cigar store, where expertise and connoisseurship should still be in demand.
There, however, may be problems with this facetious suggestion—the Times quotes the owner the Three Little Indians Cigar Shop in Little Italy: “If you smoke cigars, I would say you know a little bit about them. Professionalism is everything. ‘Dress to impress.’ That’s my motto.” But he adds, though they may know their cigars and have the clothes to sell them, one problem is that no one is buying cigars.
So that leaves either getting a job shredding documents (lots of experience with that) or hiring out as a clown.
The latter for some may actually be working out. Gary Pincus, who runs Send In the Clowns Entertainment Corporation, which specializes in children’s parties, reports that he has been getting lots of calls from Wall Street guys who want to work with them. “They want to change their careers.”
If you think this represents a dumbing-down of brokers’ skills and expertise, not true claims Gary. His business is more than walking around in paper maché shoes, Clarabell wigs, and putty noses. There are also positions for stilt-walkers, disc jockeys, and face painters.
Of course there are still what he calls the “marquee jobs”—clowns. He says, “We’ll hire clowns from Wall Street. No problem.”
Out of frustration, outrage, and fear it has been easy for politicians, late-night comedians, and even me to take pot shots at these former masters of the universe while not paying as much attention to the tragedies that have befallen more ordinary citizens.
But I can’t resist one last shot. I then promise to move on.
While Northern Trust executives, after receiving $1.6 billion in taxpayer bailout money, try to defend spending millions last week on an extravagant golfing junket in L.A. that featured entertainment by the likes of Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire and the ever-righteous Sheryl Crow, back in the Wall Street trenches former workers, not wanting to have to move back in with their parents, struggled to find new livelihoods.
The government of the City of New York, worried about the ripple effect of so many laid off workers, instituted a $45 million retraining program.
Michael Wilson, a local reporter for the New York Times, had a little fun with what that new program might include. (Article linked below.)
As with all such programs, job counseling will play a big part; and the first thing these kinds of counselors do is to see if the skills someone acquired in his or her former position can be transferred into a new field.
So, Wilson, suggests, since so many tourists still flood into the Big Apple and want tours of the sights, who better than former Wall Streeters to show people around the financial district? The founder of Big Onion Walking tours, in fact, says they have received résumés from the no longer-employed. It appears, then, that the new program is off to a good start.
Then there may be life serving as butlers for some after Wall Street. Yes, the still more-or-less rich do have them. They earn anywhere from $70,000 to $150,000 a year. Not big numbers by last summer’s downtown standards, but that was then as this is now.
Why might former banking executives have skills that would make them good butlers? I wouldn’t know never having had a butler, but Wilson assures that most important to the butler trade is having good management skills and thus the suggestion.
Though he mean-spiritedly points out that there might be some awkwardness in the situation—after being used to having others light one’s cigars, it wouldn’t be easy being on the other end of the match.
But then again, still in the realm of cigars, former brokers who enjoyed lighting up at the end of the day might seek work at a high-end cigar store, where expertise and connoisseurship should still be in demand.
There, however, may be problems with this facetious suggestion—the Times quotes the owner the Three Little Indians Cigar Shop in Little Italy: “If you smoke cigars, I would say you know a little bit about them. Professionalism is everything. ‘Dress to impress.’ That’s my motto.” But he adds, though they may know their cigars and have the clothes to sell them, one problem is that no one is buying cigars.
So that leaves either getting a job shredding documents (lots of experience with that) or hiring out as a clown.
The latter for some may actually be working out. Gary Pincus, who runs Send In the Clowns Entertainment Corporation, which specializes in children’s parties, reports that he has been getting lots of calls from Wall Street guys who want to work with them. “They want to change their careers.”
If you think this represents a dumbing-down of brokers’ skills and expertise, not true claims Gary. His business is more than walking around in paper maché shoes, Clarabell wigs, and putty noses. There are also positions for stilt-walkers, disc jockeys, and face painters.
Of course there are still what he calls the “marquee jobs”—clowns. He says, “We’ll hire clowns from Wall Street. No problem.”
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home