Why the big Wall Street banks are hurting

It’s not the protesters drumming in Zuccotti Park or the chants of “shame” keeping them up at night at their Manhattan homes. It’s a business model built to churn out easy money in a bubble that’s sounding an alarm.

Wall Street is struggling with market forces that keep dragging its bubble machine back to the ground.

snip

Without easy money, Wall Street’s apparatus for mining easy cash have gone quiet. Goldman Sachs Group (GS +0.46%) lost money trading 21 days during the most recent quarter, the most since 2008. The firm even owned up to $100 million in losses on a single day.
Much of this is due to the evaporation of the huge spreads in fixed income that traders generally take advantage of. Treasurys and corporate and municipal bond spreads have narrowed to a sliver. This has hurt the so-called shadow bankers as well. Witness the 5.5% decline for the Hedge Fund Research Index in the third quarter.

snip

Without an asset to inflate, Wall Street is bracing for a prolonged grind. The industry has shed more than 30,000 jobs. Bonuses are expected to decline 20% to 30% for those who still hold their jobs. Investors have seen bank stocks fall 27% since February, as measured by the KBW Philadelphia Bank Index, and brokerages tumble more than 30%, according to the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index.

link:
http://money.msn.com/stock-broker-guided/latest.aspx?post=d4c5d791-e23f-4f72-80eb-22625ffb40c9&_nwpt=1?

on note:
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:)

Without easy money,

Yep. They're running out of people they can rip off. Now what?

The article had this bit of heresy
Ultimately, Wall Street could survive if bankers and investors could accept moderate growth.

OMFG!!! Moderate growth. Less money?!!! Smaller bonuses!!!

Now bankers on Wall Street can only steal from each other.

to gorge themselves on and being forced to turn upon each other in a final act of cannibalism.

Cry me a f'n river. :nopity:

George Bush's Theme Song:

Some folks inherit
star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war.
And when you ask them,
"How much should we give?"
They only answer "More! More! More!"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbNnvPBokNs

There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when "austerity pink slips" start getting handed out in reams to those who today only party with the 1%.

They'll be nobodies then, unemployed, overleveraged, and more than a few will be joining OWS when they can't get into the best partays anymore.


:nopity:

put tens of thousands of ex-traders to work on something fruitful and promising.

What that could be is anybody's guess, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

We don't need them --

And recalling the bail outs, they sure need us!!

THEY'LL ACTUALLY HAVE TO *GASP* WORK!!!!!!

whatever will they do?

My heart breaks for them.

Bear, Lehman and others got cannibalized because these predator banks need something substantial to prey on. In lack of poor little lost sheep, the smaller wolf will do.

I like the fact that they've stolen nearly everything though. Firstly, they're getting itchy fingers and are looking at each other. Secondly, the usual game of "Look at the welfare queen!" seems to have run its course. When everyone looks around and notices that only the thieves have anything, it's a little hard to make an excuse that will stick.

:evilgrin:

in a bankrupt world.

Shock and awe, baby.

and ship their pathetic asses to a third world country to fend for themselves?

My hemmorrhoids bleed for Wall Street.

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :spray: :spray: :spray: :spray: :spray: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: