"The Boston area will escape the brunt of the fallout.... insulated from the effects of the Lehman collapse and the fire sale of Merrill.... Boston might also benefit from a brain drain from Wall Street, where tens of thousands of high-paying jobs are expected to disappear.... One potential positive is there's going to be a lot of people looking for jobs.... Still, money may flow out of mutual funds.... if the US financial brand is tarnished, affluent foreigners could pull money out of Boston investment firms."
Also see: The Boston Globe Says a Depression Would Be a Good Idea
The Boston Globe Says Being Poor is Your Fault
I kind of get tired of the deceptive cheer-leading from the corporate MSM.
"Boston assesses financial fallout; Money managers gird for change in Wall St. landscape" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | September 16, 2008
Boston's shaken money managers are struggling to gauge how the city's financial sector will be reshaped by yesterday's Wall Street meltdown.
"No one ever thought they'd see a day like this," said Michael A. Greeley, managing general partner at IDG Ventures in Boston, who worked on Wall Street early in his career. "To think that two of our largest investment banks are now history is unfathomable."
The crisis could mean jittery investors, more stringent regulations, tighter credit, and, potentially, job losses at the local offices of Lehamna Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co., which together employ as many as 1,000 across Massachusetts.
"When the dust settles, there are going to be some people let go," said Scott M. Black, president of Boston investment firm Delphi Management Inc. "The real impact will be a shrinkage in available credit. Borrowing rates for individuals and corporations are going up."
And yet the BG has articles expounding how the Fed is going to save us by lowering rates and loosening liquidity. Then the banks soak up the $$$. I'm tired of the MSM lies in favor of banks, which is ANOTHER AGENDA-PUSH!!!
But business and government leaders were hoping the Boston area will escape the brunt of the fallout. Many of Boston's financial giants are "asset managers," such as mutual fund, private equity, and wealth-management firms, thought to be somewhat insulated from the effects of the Lehman collapse and the fire sale of Merrill, industry insiders said. More vulnerable are the New York investment and commercial banks that are deeply entangled with Lehman and Merrill, and weighed down by risky portfolios of mortgage-backed securities.
Still, money may flow out of mutual funds, which anchor Boston's financial industry, as spooked investors switch from stocks to bonds and cash. And, if the US financial brand is tarnished, affluent foreigners could pull money out of Boston investment firms.
Boston might also benefit from a brain drain from Wall Street, where tens of thousands of high-paying jobs are expected to disappear, suggested Andrew W. Lo, director of the Laboratory for Financial Engineering at MIT's Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. "One potential positive is there's going to be a lot of people looking for jobs, and that could bring some talented people to Boston," Lo said.
Of course, Mr. Lo here is still working, so he can say that.
--more--"
