doomsday
Yesterday in the City was blacker than the Black Monday. Tsunami wiped over the financial markets, leaving the sector in turmoil. “5000 jobs axed in the city” the headlines screamed, in the afternoon. There was talk about this being the “beginning of an end”, the “end to an era”, the end of “capitalism as we know it”.
The scene was absurd – worried, even terrified faces everywhere. In line, waiting their turn to pay for groceries, people had their eyes glued on the TV screen, hanging above the tills. News, showing on shop windows made heads turn. The stride from the steps, that usually rush through the busy streets of the City on a weekday, was gone.
Luckily not everybody was taken back by these unexpected news. “I went shopping.” A friend told me. Huh? “Yeah, there was a sale on in the bourse!” I had to laugh. The eternal optimist.
Chuckles. You know how many of my friends still worked at Lehmans? And you are laughing? “Oh, with their £million/yr salaries they do not have to worry about having bread on the table. But it must suck. At least I got out in time.” And then it is cynical and mean call bankers vultures. Or maybe it applies only to ex-bankers. Or the ones in the sidelines. Go figure.
Bets. Who would you put your money on? Who is the next? It will be in London, don’t you think? I decided not to participate, too worried to lose my last pounds, reserved for take away coffee when the rest of my savings were eaten up by inflation.
Somebody told me he had just had his personal revenge – after being turned down by the banks, now in the headlines, he was enjoying a low, but still existing salary. I could say the same. After all I had, when I still believed that I could and would want to make it in the world of high pressure and high wages, gone through the trouble of trying to be recruited by the market leaders (and followers). Not that it ever bothered me that I wasn’t, now even less.
I biked back home through the city, where dark clouds were hanging over the scene. Turned the TV on. Kept it on, happy having had it fixed only a week earlier. Not that I really expected anything groundbreaking to happen. But just in case.
The scene was absurd – worried, even terrified faces everywhere. In line, waiting their turn to pay for groceries, people had their eyes glued on the TV screen, hanging above the tills. News, showing on shop windows made heads turn. The stride from the steps, that usually rush through the busy streets of the City on a weekday, was gone.
Luckily not everybody was taken back by these unexpected news. “I went shopping.” A friend told me. Huh? “Yeah, there was a sale on in the bourse!” I had to laugh. The eternal optimist.
Chuckles. You know how many of my friends still worked at Lehmans? And you are laughing? “Oh, with their £million/yr salaries they do not have to worry about having bread on the table. But it must suck. At least I got out in time.” And then it is cynical and mean call bankers vultures. Or maybe it applies only to ex-bankers. Or the ones in the sidelines. Go figure.
Bets. Who would you put your money on? Who is the next? It will be in London, don’t you think? I decided not to participate, too worried to lose my last pounds, reserved for take away coffee when the rest of my savings were eaten up by inflation.
Somebody told me he had just had his personal revenge – after being turned down by the banks, now in the headlines, he was enjoying a low, but still existing salary. I could say the same. After all I had, when I still believed that I could and would want to make it in the world of high pressure and high wages, gone through the trouble of trying to be recruited by the market leaders (and followers). Not that it ever bothered me that I wasn’t, now even less.
I biked back home through the city, where dark clouds were hanging over the scene. Turned the TV on. Kept it on, happy having had it fixed only a week earlier. Not that I really expected anything groundbreaking to happen. But just in case.
For once, working in the City had become interesting.
posted by riikka @ 5:44 PM
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