Turmoil on Wall Street

The past two weeks have been incredibly eventful in the financial world. Several of the biggest names on Wall Street have either gone out of business, forced to be sold, or saved by the US Government.

This is very relevant to me since I use to work at one of the two remaining independent investment banks still embroiled in the turmoil. I have spoken to some of my former co-workers and can sense the nervousness about their uncertain future. It is likely that they will have to be forced into a merger considering the adverse market condition for an independent investment bank to operate under. This will most likely result in layoffs as there will be redundancies in any merger.

As this financial seismic event was taking place on Wall Street, people in China also felt it as their stock market dove in concert with the global markets. Its actually pretty amazing how many people in China actually know the names of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. I don't think most Chinese actually know what these firms do, but then again it seems like the firms themselves don't seem to either.