Today’s WSJ reports trader & investment bankers are spending on luxury items on the QT.
The focus was on the parallels between big bonuses and big spending. WSJ used the example of spending from $15,000-a-week-caribbean vacations to $200,000 platinum watches… and of course hi-end real estate in NYC and the revered home in the Hamptons.
In the Hamptons the number of home sales in the 3rd Quarter of this year dramatically increased over the 2nd Quarter 2009 as well as increased from the same period (3rd Q 2008).
Bonuses are considerably lower than 2007 figures.
With all the bad PR these bonuses are getting, it seems the recipients are being told to be discrete in their spending.
The good news for the overall economy is they ARE spending it! Undeniably, this fuels the US economy and trickles down to everyone from the home seller to the shopkeeper to the tax collector…