<p>Does this tarnish the attraction of the Ivy League as much of that seemed to be based on access to Wall Street jobs, northeast connections which are now devalued? Will privates overall suffer as college funds shrink and tuition costs continue to rise? Will people stick closer to home. Has the charm of NYC been damaged?</p>
<p>^ You're loving this, barrons, aren't you? ;)</p>
<p>"Has the charm of NYC been damaged?"</p>
<p>What charm?</p>
<p>This said, I think that the attraction of NYC and Wall Street will remain solid after this latest tsunami. After all, companies will still try to drum up "new" business, and will continue to hire the "cheaper" labor force from the usual NE sources. I think that the biggest casualties will come from the middle ranks of employees who have not become rain makers but have gotten more expensive. </p>
<p>Big bucks and job security do not always walk hand in hand.</p>
<p>^ charm = prestige bling in a "bulge bracket" IB job.</p>
<p>I wonder what they'll call "bulge bracket" these days? The only entity that is bulging is Bank of America.</p>
<p>barrons,
I don't think that this was a public vs private issue, but I certainly would agree with anyone who concluded that graduates of the historical elites of the Northeast are overrated and that there is great student intelligence, stability, common sense, and passion across the country and often in a wrapper that is not quite so ego-centric. </p>
<p>But will this change Wall Street and NYC? I doubt it. The folks who live and work there will find some way to blame it on somebody else....:rolleyes:</p>
<p>It means that old folks can't retire and jobs will be hard to come by.
Barrons will have to put off buying his retirement home in Madison.
I think there was a bump in the stock market back in 2000 wasn't there?
Stocks rebounded eventually, so I hear.</p>
<p>I am wondering how the meltdown is affecting college endowments.</p>
<p>I bought my retirement home 5 years ago in Central Virginia. It's in an area well away from the influence of the current slump and there has been little impact in the city. I did read car sales are down a bit. Home values are stable after a nice gain over the five years.</p>
<p>We also moved our accounts from Wamu to B of A. Just to avoid any hassles or delays. </p>
<p>Schadenfreude rules!</p>
<p>Is that wrong?</p>
<p>
[quote]
We also moved our accounts from Wamu to B of A. Just to avoid any hassles or delays.
[/quote]
Heh, I'm closing on my house next week and I have all of my down payment at WaMu. Hopefully, there won't be any problems or else I owe $150 per diem if I'm late closing (buying a foreclosure). :(</p>
<p>I think it will be fine. Still not too many foreclosures up here except in the less desirable areas. My stepson is in residential RE and has a bunch of such listings. He has found all sorts of gross stuff people leave behind as a last message to the banks. He now has his own Hazmat suit.<kidding but="" he="" could="" use="" one=""></kidding></p>
<p>^ Hopefully I'm buying at the bottom. It's a fixer-upper, but in a great neighborhood. It was listed too low and had 14 offers...I had to offer $43k over asking price to get it. My agent told me I wasn't the highest offer, but I was quick in response for info, whereas the other purchaser had be asked 9 times to provide documentation.</p>
<p>At least the bank accepted the offer and is paying my closing costs...less money out of my pocket. The place was cleaned out...it was a former rental.</p>
<p>This is a great time to buy foreclosed homes. Whether we are at the bottom in real estate prices is anybody's guess......and its impossible to game the exact bottom. But be careful. </p>
<p>Second, this meltdown in WallStreet was set off by the spark in foreclosures, but the gas in the balloon was derivatives. TOO many derivatives and nobody really knows how to unwind it all because people, believe it or not, arent really sure how to value the "assets" and what they really are. That is what brought down AIG, not its insurance business. </p>
<p>Wall Street will recover, but obviously fewer IB houses will be standing. And we dont know how that shakes out yet and its impact on "jobs in NYC."</p>
<p>The REAL question is how hard have colleges been hit in THEIR investment accounts. Many made millions....multiple millions over the past years on the bubble going up. Did they get hammered on the bubble popping? Inquiring minds want to know.</p>
<p>I think most colleges and universities have sufficiently diversified investment portfolios that they won't see much actual shrinkage in their endowments, but they won't be seeing the high-flying rates of return the best of them have earned over the past few years, either. Since they generally pay out from their endowments on the basis of three-year rolling averages, they'll probably even see some modest growth in spending from endowments, but the rate of growth in such spending will be lower.</p>
<p>I think where colleges will be hit is on the tuition and financial aid side. Some parents of current and prospective students have lost their jobs or face the real prospect of job loss. Many have seen their investment portfolios shrink. Many have seen tens or in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity evaporate. In the current credit crunch, many will find it difficult to borrow to meet EFC; and many will be wary about saddling their kids with big college loans since they can no longer make the easy assumption that a fat IB salary is there for the taking at the end of four years in college. Some will have real difficulty making tuition payments. And I predict there's going to be a lot more bargain-seeking on the part of the parents of this year's college applicants--more applications for financial aid, more shopping around for grant (not loan) aid, more shopping around for merit aid, more high EFC families steering their kids toward lower-cost publics. HYPSM and a few other elites will be just fine. But a lot of less well-endowed private universities and LACs could feel a real crunch, both in strains on their financial aid budgets and in increasing difficulty in competing for the students they want.</p>
<p>Smart move. I think WAMU will be the next casulty whereas Bank of America will stay afloat.</p>
<p>As a 25 year Wall Street vet, I can assure you that it is not Wall Street desires that attracts people to ivies. This was best demonstrated during the dot com boom when we had serious trouble hiring because the top students who were flooding us with resumes stopped quickly when they determined the returns would be higher with start ups. The ivies attract ambitious, driven kids, they turn on a dime when they see a brighter star which is to be expected from the young, brilliant and impatient.</p>
<p>There will be a few rough years, mediocre bankers will be history, there will be far less hiring of new college grads. We'll see some major restructuring and in a couple of years be talking about this years' woes just as we do the down cycles of the past now. Banking will recover, NYC will recover and a couple of classes of smart ivy grads will need to find something else to do for now.</p>
<p>The effect on top colleges? I'd be shocked if there is any at all. The driven kids and their families may have hoped for Wall Street but now they'll hope for the next top job du jour. With the ever increasing numbers of international applicants, I don't see this recession touching the top schools. What's the worse that could happen, they go back to rejecting six out of ten instead of nine?</p>
<p>The colleges that need to worry are the expensive private colleges that families will have trouble justifying, those below the top 30 or so.</p>
<p>hmom. well...your perspective is valuable. let me suggest that if those kids flocked to the dot.coms (and all but a handful survived) you didnt miss much. it seems to me that white shoe wallstreet firms should be looking for character and not just ambition. and what lessons has wallstreet learned from this derivatives debacle? what created it? accountability? and perhaps a check on greed and hubris?</p>
<p>I too am dripping with schadenfreude. Karma finally strikes back against the i-banking d-bags.</p>
<p>I confess I don't understand the 'gleeful' tones I might be reading into some posts. What's the karmic half-life of schadenfreude over the Wall Street mess? This is one area where I do believe in trickle-down economics. Rather than gloat that someone else has the wind taken out of their sails, I'm hoping my own canoe stays afloat.</p>
<p>WaMu has been very late in posting my mortgage check. They're charging me a late fee. I'm wondering if they are doing this on purpose to help their bottom line.</p>
<p>lefthand,
I think you are accurately reading these posts (at least mine) as there is a tremendous amount of anger and disgust with the business practices of some people on Wall Street who put all of the US financial system in peril. </p>
<p>The greed of a relative handful of people nearly took down the entire system and had a major hand in the disappearance of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, the diminished status of AIG, the changed status of Merrill Lynch (and nearly Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs), and the very costly bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not to mention whatever Hank Paulson and crew will create now. A few at the top of the financial industry pyramid have been some of the greatest financial beneficiaries of the last few years and even when they lose, they win, ie, they walk away with multi-million dollar payouts. The best and the brightest?? Personally, I'd love to see a few of them walking around in orange jumpsuits and chains and handcuffs. </p>
<p>IMO, the resentment and outrage across the country is the most undertold story of all and probably because most folks don't have much of an appreciation for the avarice of these people and the danger that they have exposed all of us to. If you thought cynicism about lobbying payments to government officials was high before, it is exponentially higher today. Wall Street and Washington have been in cohoots and completely asleep (if not completely uncaring about) to the consequences of their actions.</p>