major earthquake - DOWN and OUT on Wall (fall) Street

Have you heard about the earth quake that has shaken Wall Street to its very core? Well, brace your self, for this re ally is a shocker: bonus pay­ments are down.

Yes, the ex or bi tant bonus checks pock eted each year by the Gold man Sach ers, Cit i groupers, and other fi nan cial tin ker ers have been cut by about 25 per cent this year, and — oh! — you should hear the Wall Streeters moan ing the hard-times, down-and-out banker blues. "It's a dis as ter," sobbed one. "The en tire con struct of com pen sa tion has changed."

Cyn ics, of course, will say, "Good — about time." It's dif fi cult in these times of mid dle-class col lapse and ris ing poverty to get teary-eyed over a few fi nan cial swells get ting a trim. But, come on, open your hearts to their pain.


A hedge-fund man ager, for ex am ple, says it'll now be a strain for him to make his $7,500 an nual mem ber ship dues in the Trump Na­tional Golf Club. Plus, he wor ries about food, health care, and board­ing. Not for him, but for his two dogs. He's been lay ing out $17,000 a year for up keep of his labradoo dle and bi chon frise, in clud ing around $5,000 to hire a daily dog-walker for them.

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The crunch is so bad for these 1-per centers that one says he now has to shop for dis counted salmon for din ner and has had to give up his an nual ski trip to Aspen. And a high-dol lar ac coun tant who does fi nan cial plan ning for the wealthy prac ti cally weeps for clients who have to cut back. Em pathiz ing with the stress of it all, he asks: "Could you imag ine what it's like to say, 'I got three kids in pri vate school, I have to think about pulling them out?' How do you do that?"

Dab bing his eyes with tis sues, he adds that these peo ple have been rak ing in around $500,000 a year, and they never dreamed "that they'd be broke."

Broke? Get a grip. We should all be as "broke" as they are.



JIM HIGHTOWER



ABOUT JIM HIGHTOWER
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.