Urban Hayride

I Won't Say 'I told you so'

When asked, "What's going to change in our society after this financial crisis?"

You probably won't have so many young people making $200,000 a year working at Morgan Stanley, running to Kinko's to make copies every day.

Comment from the managing editor of Fortune Magazine. 

That says it all.  This is certainly not the end of unjustified Wall Street salaries, maybe just a brief snap back to reality.  Unjustified might not be the right word.  People pay for these services, so you Morgan Stanley, or Goldman Sachs can pay whatever they want in salary.

There are simply going to be a lot of young, former I-banking analysts looking for a new career in graphic design...

New York's Bust; Charlotte's Boom

It looks like Charlotte is about to gain some ground on New York City's financial dominance.  Today, Bank of America announced it is buying Merrill Lynch.  Wachovia may be the next, and really the only money center bank that has the option of buying a Wall Street giant - Morgan Stanley?  Both banks are based in Charlotte.

Bank of America is about to expand its balance sheets, its payroll.  Wachovia may be doing the same.  It's not as if every job that was in NYC will move to Charlotte; until the stock exchange packs up and heads South, that won't be the case, but with the passing of each year more jobs will shift.

Wall Street's loss may be Charlotte's gain.  So, as Richmond continues to lose financial institutions ie. Wachovia Securities - Charlotte continues to boom.

It will be interesting and not to mention sad to see how many jobs will be lost due to, BofA's purchase of Merrill, Lehman's failure and any collapse in the the waiting.

American in Spain

trust me, the blog is not dead.  many things are taking over my time at the moment; one of them more than others.  my amazing girlfriend elizabeth left the continent 15 days ago today.  needless to say, it wasn't a good day for me, but it was the start of a great adventure for her.  she will be in barcelona until december 19 at which I will be meeting her at the airport along with a marching band and that big verizon group of people in the verizon commercials - it'll be a party.

im writing with no caps in honor of liz, who doesn't apparently doesn't believe in capital letters

follow along with liz on her blog tealeavesandrooftops

Who Needs a Great Leader?

Penn Jillette offers some interesting commentary on the campaign. 

The idea, especially from the Democrats that I know, is, we just get a smarter guy in the White House, and all the problems will go away. We'll have smart speeches, smart high gas prices, smart bad economy, smart war on terrorism, smart war on drugs, smart hurricanes, smart global warming, smart war in Georgia -- smart, smart, smart...

We need someone stupid enough to understand that the president of the United States can't solve many problems without taking away freedom and therefore shouldn't try. The only reason John McCain scares me a little less is because I think he's a little less likely to win. They both promise a government that will watch over us, and I don't like that.

I don't want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that's what I want. I don't want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us.

I think Penn is being a bit facitious when he says "Who needs a good leader?", but his comments on personal liberty are right on the money.

I mentioned a short time ago that I have an internal battle brewing between my less government, free-market instincts and, well, the other side of me.  It's eating me alive.  Again, I end up in the middle - If I was to make a platform of my own political strategy, I guarantee it would line up 50/50 with the Republican and Democratic platforms.  That's really a shame; maybe a little weak, but I'll keep chopping away.

(Very) High-speed Rail in China

China plans to soon operate the fastest rail route in the world. 

In a sign the country's ambitions to go faster, higher and bigger have not been dimmed by the end of the Olympics, the Ministry of Railways says it is raising the speed it intends the new line connecting the cities to reach when it opens in 2012.

New technology will enable trains to travel at 380 km or 236 miles an hour, 30 km per hour (18mph) more than the current generation of bullet trains, according to the ministry's deputy chief engineer, Zhang Shuguang.

The high-speed line from Beijing to Shanghai has been an on-off project for several years, but work finally began in April

As I was driving from the DC area back to Richmond I was thinking, 'wouldn't it be nice if there were a train from Richmond to DC that didn't cost more than a tank of gas?'  I don't know what the planned cost of the bullet train is, but if we could build a route that goes even 2/3 of that speed to run up and down the East Coast, think of the economic benefit some localities would experience.  I think more people would be inclined to take day trips to DC, to VA Beach, and so on. 

Countries are beginning to catch, and even surpass the United States in innovation.  This is a clear example.  We need a shot of creativity.

Maybe I'm wrong.  Any thoughts?