Laid-off Wall Streeters want regulations
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Wall Street’s losses aren’t just reflected in share values.
The state of New York expects some 40,000 financial sector jobs will be lost because of the crisis. As part of our election series “Interested Parties,” Jeremy Hobson caught with some ex-Wall Streeters to find out what they’re expecting from the next administration.
Jeremy Hobson:
So this was your building here, One State Street Plaza?
Bryan Tackett: Yup.
Hobson: And you used to come here every day?
Tackett: Every single day. Yup.
Bryan Tackett is 28. Until recently, he worked for a mid-sized insurance broker in New York’s financial district.
Tackett: You know we dealt with these private equity and alternative investment folks that were piggy backing off of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations and whatnot to fund their ventures and now that that’s no longer there, there’s no need for me to be looking at the deals and evaluating the insurance so yeah, I would say 100 percent I am a direct casualty of what’s gone on in the financial markets right now.
We walk a few blocks away to Battery Park–thousands of financial employees come here in the middle of their work day to snack, walk, or just sit facing the nearby Statue of Liberty. Tackett says he places much of the blame on greed in the private sector. But he says…
Tackett:
Government regulation would have been at least a way to take care of the problem. I think that the other thing is that there were no ethics involved from the private sector. I mean, I think these guys saw the dollar signs and they continued to just do what they were gonna do because they knew that they weren’t going to lose any money or at least that’s what they thought.
Hobson: We’re coming up on the Presidential election. Is this going to figure into how you vote?
Tackett: Absolutely. But I think, you know, looking at everybody else who’s the better candidate to help take care of everybody and not just me.
Tacket wants the next President to have a better grasp of the financial services industry, so he can do a better job of regulating it. So does 46-year-old Christopher Miraldi. I caught up with him in Central Park.
He spent 20 years in the business. Most recently selling Wachovia’s financial products to international clients. He was laid off in February.
Hobson: What did they tell you?
Christopher Miraldi: Basically that, you know the bank, there were losses. And my that job was being eliminated. I asked twice if it was performance related and they said no.
Miraldi will be fine for the moment. He started saving his bonuses a couple years ago, and says he could live for months without working. But he says Washington needs to get its priorities straight.
Miraldi: The government really needs to look at the banking system as a critical industry. What would it be like if we had no regulation in meat and poultry? The market would not regulate itself. You would have garbage on your shelves. Why do they think it’s going to be any different with banking?
Hobson: Do you think that Washington can create the kinds of regulations that Wall Street types won’t be able to just get around?
Miraldi: You know Wall Street’s very clever. I think that they can always get around things but I think someone who understands the industry will create the proper regulations.
Miraldi isn’t just thinking about regulation of the industry he once worked in. He’s got a new concern. When he lost his job, he lost his health care.
Miraldi: Having health care tied to your job is absolutely ludicrous because at precisely the moment when you do get downsized, all of a sudden your health care costs jump through the roof with COBRA.
Perhaps most of all, though, he says he just wants the next President to be straight with the American people.
Miraldi: We can take bad news. We’re not going to fall apart. Telling people, you know, sugar coating things is not really going to help because then they get angry. And when you’re angry you can’t think logically.
Both of these ex-Wall Streeters are holding out hope for jobs. Bryan Tackett is networking and sending out resumes. Christopher Miraldi is thinking about regulating the industry he once worked for. He’s also considering getting out of the business altogether, teaching English abroad. Both Tackett and Miraldi plan to vote next month.
In New York, I’m Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
