NY Times - In Private, Wall St. Bankers Dismiss Protesters as Unsophisticated

[underpants]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/business/in-private-conversation-wall-street-is-more-critical-of-protesters.html?pagewanted=1&hp

“Most people view it as a ragtag group looking for sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll,” said one top hedge fund manager.

“It’s not a middle-class uprising,” adds another veteran bank executive. “It’s fringe groups. It’s people who have the time to do this.”

“Who do you think pays the taxes?” said one longtime money manager. “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.”

“Wall Street continues to underestimate the degree of anger among citizens and voters,” said Douglas J. Elliott, a former investment banker who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. For the most part, bankers say that they see the protests as a reaction to the high unemployment and slow growth that has plagued the American economy since the recession and the financial crisis of 2008. Despite all the placards and chants plainly indicating otherwise, some bankers suggest that deep down, the protesters are not really all that mad at them.

[Quantess]

1. Clueless!

Financial services are well done in this country? Oh, so is that why the financial system nearly collapsed?

[Enrique]

6. exactly, talk about misplaced pride

"we do it well"

:rofl:

[no_hypocrisy]

2. "Let them eat cake."

[sakabatou]

3. How far are their heads up their asses?

[Graybeard]

8. How high are those ivory towers?

Heads up their asses and looking down their noses?

They must be contortionists to get in that position.

Clueless.

[stlsaxman]

4. Stage 2 of that Gandhi quote- "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you..." nt

[Dover]

5. Insulated. They have no experience of living with the consequences of their actions

so I can certainly understand why they feel 'untouchable'.

[rfranklin]

7. "We do financial services well"...collecting exorbitant interest and banking fees...

sure is a boon to the American economy. They really do think that they are the "job creators."

[Prometheus Bound]

11. Not to mention bailouts

[Dennis Donovan]

9. "Uhh Lovey... look at the unwashed masses on our sidewalk..."

"Make them go away Thurston!"

[hobbit709]

10. The Bourbons said the same thing about the mobs in Paris.

Remember what happened to them.

[Donnachaidh]

12. So I guess they want to lose everything?

Wow.

I guess they've never studied history. Keep showing your asses, Wall Street.

[enough]

13. "In private," like when they're talking to the New York Times. (nt)

[MADem]

14. Well, why not wave the red flag before the bull?

Is this the prevailing opinion amongst these clowns, truly, or is the NYT trolling for controversy in order to keep the tension going? What's good for the news cycle is good for the NYT, after all...

[seacaves]

15. "sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll,” sounds like the anti-hippie chant

from the "establishment"


YUP--it IS!:boring:

[malaise]

16. OK then top hedge fund manager.

Enjoy the new regulations and taxes- won't be long and FUCK YOU!

[Aerows]

17. When you produce something

other than shuffling paper, you'll have some credibility. As it stands, "financial services" offer absolutely nothing and contribute absolutely nothing to society anymore. They aren't lending money, they are sitting on it. So there goes their argument that they lend and provide a service. They are doing NOTHING for society, and raking in the dough. It's time for that shit to stop.

[KurtNYC]

18. Compared to the way traders treat each other, OWS barely registers

Many of these guys had to take calls from clients during the dot com meltdown and every other meltdown since then. When you lose millions of dollars worth of someone else's money your standard of what qualifies as 'really mad at you' shifts upward.

The NYMEX pit is like a 6 hour (mostly) verbal gang fight 5 days a week. Many of the traders there are very physically intimidating. Guys over 6' and over 200 pounds last longer than the rest. It looks like steaks being thrown into the lion cage at the zoo. Barbaric.

[PA Democrat]

19. I'll bet there is more illegal drug use by the Wall Street elite

than by Wall Street protesters. Problems with drug abuse on Wall Street have been widely reported.

Searching for ‘Nelson’: Wall Street’s drug culture
http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-dealzone/2007/06/18/searching-for-nelson-wall-streets-drug-culture/

Drugs and Today’s Wall Street
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/drugs-and-todays-wall-street/

Real Mystery: REITs Top List for Drug Use on Wall Street.
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/08/23/real-mystery-reits-top-list-for-drug-use-on-wall-street/

Wall Street Drug Use: Employees Giving Up Cocaine for Pot and Pills.
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/08/20/wall-street-drug-use-employees-giving-up-cocaine-for-pot-and-pills/

[bread_and_roses]

20. OMFG - on Schumer and Gillibrand's "Constituency"

“Who do you think pays the taxes?” said one longtime money manager. “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.”

He added that he was disappointed that members of Congress from New York, especially Senator Charles E. Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, had not come out swinging for an industry that donates heavily to their campaigns. “They need to understand who their constituency is,” he said.

Doesn't he get it? Schumer and Gillibrand have to keep up a pretense of serving the people not just the Banksters - because, don't you know, of that pesky little matter of "one person, one vote."

edit to add: - of course, the NYT's reporter does not follow up at all on this remarkable truth-telling.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. As they've been doing for years.

Assessing the value of the individual in order to justify removing him from the formula.

If they underestimate the seriousness of the situation, it will be at their own risk.

[PA Democrat]

22. In public, Wall Street protesters dismiss Wall Street bankers as arrogant assholes.

Ignorance + hubris do not equal sophistication.

The majority of these titans of the financial sector were too lazy and stupid to see the train wreck of the financial meltdown coming until it was too late.

[IDemo]

23. “Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. "

:puke:

[PA Democrat]

24. Wall Street has become little more than a giant casino

where the "house" rigs the game.