This is a great relief!
Exuberance made a comeback this year at Josh Koplewicz’s annual Halloween party. More than 1,000 people packed into a 6,000-square-foot space at the Good Units night club in Manhattan, a substantially larger crowd than in the last several years. The open bar was sponsored by Russian Standard vodka, and Mr. Koplewicz, an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs, was able to snag a big headliner: the hip-hop star Lil’ Kim, who performed dressed in a black cat costume.
The scene was more extravagant in September, at a 50th birthday party in Hong Kong for Brian Brille, the head of Bank of America Asia Pacific. Mr. Brille, who is well known on the New York social scene, wore a gray Hugh Hefner-esque jacket. Women dressed like Playmates, with feather boas and satin ears, danced behind a pink silk screen.
Two years after the onset of the financial crisis, the stock market is recovering and Wall Street’s moneyed elite are breathing easier again. And this means in some cases they are spending again — at times cautiously, but sometimes with a familiar swagger.
Apparently, the Communist Nazi Socialist Kenyan hasn't succeeded in his nefarious plan to undermine the American Way. The American Way as it should be, for all the important people. Meanwhile, the little people will have to make do with eating cake. Or something.
Extended unemployment insurance put in place to fight the recession prevented the poverty rate from rising to 15.4 percent in 2009, a level unseen since the 1960s, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The government announced in September that that the 2009 poverty rate had risen to 14.3 percent from 13.2 percent the previous year.
Extended unemployment insurance that the Republicans are doing their best to kill. The result of which will be this:
About 2 million long-term jobless workers could lose eligibility for unemployment-insurance payments by the end of the year due to the expiration of federal funding.
A special extended-benefits program that relies on federal funds will start shutting down later this month.
There are no jobs. There will be no unemployment benefits, which may cause record poverty levels. But Wall Street's moneyed elite are breathing easier. Let's celebrate!