Investment Banking on the Brink (Bankers now being laid off by the thousands)

For decades, investment bankers have held the key to untold riches -- but now they're being laid off by the tens of thousands. As the crisis forces the industry to search for a new identity, is it ready to mend its ways?

The suicide victims chose a location with symbolic significance. Last fall, only a few weeks apart, a businesswoman and a banker went to the Coq d'Argent, an upscale restaurant and hot spot in the world of London high finance, located on the top floor of a shopping complex, to end their lives.

The woman put down her purse and jumped from the restaurant's cozy rooftop terrace. The banker, an investment specialist, jumped into the building's atrium around lunchtime.

The "City," the casual term the financial center uses in reference to itself, was shocked. The suicides are the most glaring expression of an apocalyptic mood that seems to have gripped all of London. Hospitals are reporting a high incidence of patients with alcohol problems, while top restaurants are fighting for every customer.

The crisis has struck at the heart of the financial center. In 2012, banks began to downsize their investment banking activities. For years, the area had been seen as a playground for those seeking instant riches and guaranteed success, and it provided tens of thousands with sometimes exorbitant incomes.

October 30 would become a horrific day for the financial district after the Swiss bank UBS announced that it was slashing 10,000 jobs in the sector. On one morning alone, the bank's London office let hordes of bankers go. Some were intercepted at the entrance, still carrying their coffee in to-go cups, only to be shown the door a short time later with a piece of paper filled with instructions.

The New York Post reports that Barclays is poised to cut as much as 10% of its global workforce next month as part of a broader shakeup.

See here:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/layoffs_loom_at_barclays_2mZEUMWIxbRMAcprdWdxOI?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business

Also, Morgan Stanley, which is slashing 1,600 jobs from its investment bank and support staff, said 360 cuts are coming from its New York City offices.

See here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-17/morgan-stanley-says-360-job-cuts-to-be-in-new-york-city-offices.html

Germany’s Commerzbank will likely propose cutting around 6,000 jobs in Germany, or about 18% of the workforce, when starting negotiations with labor representatives next month, three people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal Thursday.

See here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130117-709012.html?mod=WSJ_Banking_middleHeadlines

3/14/12--- Goldman Sachs Exec Quits In A Scathing NYT Op-Ed About How The Firm Abuses Its Clients
Business Insider | Joe Weisenthal / FR Posted by SeekAndFind

Well this seems sure to be the buzzy Wall Street story of the day. It's also sure to be another PR nightmare for Goldman Sachs.

Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has announced he's quitting the firm in a most public manner: He did so by writing a long NYT op-ed denouncing what the firm has become.

After nearly 12 years, he says, the place is as "toxic and destructive" as he's ever seen it. He slams the culture under Lloyd Blankfein, saying that the firm puts making money over clients, and that he can no longer in good conscience stay there and recruit people.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money.

Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

He says he was once proud of working for Goldman, but not now...I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work. What really galls him is the extent to which the sole focus is making money off clients, rather than servicing them. (Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...

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THE G/S CHRONICLES

G/S insiders all go on to bigger and better things (/snix).

Take G/S head Jon Corzine---he went on to buy two elected offices for some $125 million---Corzine was a US Senator and NJ governor. When Corzio was tossed out as Gov, he and several G/S cronies went to MF Global and looted that company of some $1.2 billion.

<><> Corzine is a well-rounded G/S operator. As Governor, he left the state of NJ $8 billion in debt. $8 billion went missing from the bogus "schools construction" agency....other agencies like UI and the Transporation Trust Fund went bankrupt with no explanation why. The $82 Billion state pension fund lost about 25%.

<><> OBAMA-CORZINE CONNECTION Right before Corzio’s reelection, Obama sent $17.5 Billion stimulus to NJ-—which promptly vanished. VP Biden is on record as having asked Corzine for financial advice----Biden has a son and a brother involved with the Stanford offshore fraud (Stanford was just convicted of running a Ponzi)

<><> MF Global principal Brad Abelow was Corzine’s appointee as NJ Treasury Secy——controlling ALL NJ assets. Gov and Secy started an investment business——but the two “financial geniuses” said they did not know this was illegal.

<><> MF Global principal Chris Flowers handled Sen/Gov Corzine’s “blind assets.” Flowers led the takeover of a Japanerse bank for Sen Corzine——Sen Corzine passed a bill giving the bank a US tax break......

<><> Jonny said "he did not know" the Senate bill benefitted him. Insider trading on Capitol hill could also be involved---Congress-rigged to get the Corzine bill passed.

<><> Corzine registered three corporations in super-secret financial haven——Delaware——BEFORE buying public offices.

<><>Bradley Abelow, an MBA from Yale School of Management, served as chief of Staff to the Governor of New Jersey in the Cabinet of Gov. Jon Corzine.

<><>Corzine first appointed Abelow Secy of the Treasury. Abelow and Corzine were top executives at Goldman Sachs. Abelow was MF Global Chief Operating Officer; Corzine was MF's CEO.

<><> G/S crony Chris Flowers controlled Corzine's "blind trust" while Corzine was in public office.

<><><><> Corzio, Flowers and Abelow are all G/S cronies.

Yeah---how disgusting---Madoff ostentation til the bitter end. For sure, the Madoffs got big bucks stashed away offshore.....and elsewhere.....just for occasions like this.

The Madoffs were money laundering like crazy---and took a cut off the top. They got too greedy---one of the reasons why Bernie's in Butner.

Madoff "investors" oughta be nabbed for tax evasion. Especially all those so-called non-profits who "invested" with Madoff.

CASE IN POINT--Dozens of "investments" were setup for Ponzi King Madoff by self-styled California "philanthropist" Stanley Chais. Chais setup for Madoff via Chais' feeder fund-----Chais was later nailed for misrepresenting himself as a broker to other Madoff investors---authorities found Chais was not a licensed broker while he took investors' money. Chais

Later it was found the self-styled "philanthropist" had collected a staggering $270 million between 1995-2008, and had been "donating" (read laundering) large sums to religious groups and other non-profits situated in Israel. Beneficiaries of the largess were the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science---Technion-Israel Institute of Technology--Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem.

(SOURCE The Wizard of Lies--Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust- book by Diana Henriques.)

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