This Week's Eat The Rich

We're not sure what's up w/ the L. A. Times. (Well, obviously, no one's ever sure, but we have something specific in mind here.) Last week there was the story of "consumers with above-average disposable incomes [...] notching back since the third quarter of last year," as we agonized over here, this wk. it's

The bedroom community for New York bankers and traders isn't suffering like the rest of the nation, but it's still feeling the pinch.

We don't know if Times readers are supposed to feel sorry for people who actually have "disposable income," & believe that the wealthy are suffering as much as we are & we shouldn't go kill them, or if this is some sort of liberal/Marxist attempt at class warfare, to make the wage-slaves want to take their guns to Greenwich & bag a few non-productive parasites. (Remember, "class warfare" is not when the disposable income crowd cheats & exploits those who work for their – & the disposable incomers – living, "class warfare" is when someone mentions that working people are being fucked by their employers on a daily basis. Very, very similar to the right wing approach to "race." Mention racism & you're "playing the race card," or you're the anti-honkie racist.)

Sylwester Lemanski was this close to selling a $400,000 Lamborghini to a Wall Street investment banker. The customer had been eyeing the car for months at the dealership Lemanski manages. He had decided on the model and color -- a titanium Murcielago -- and needed only to sign on the bottom line. Then, as financial markets teetered in March and layoffs mounted on Wall Street, the customer started getting cold feet. Lemanski could feel the deal slipping away.

Oh, the pain.

Hedge-fund titans still have plenty of money. But pain is acute among rank-and-file investment bankers and traders -- those earning only $2 million or so a year -- who are worried about their jobs.

You call sitting in a fucking office all day long having your assistant get you lattes & make lunch reservations a "job?" Try digging a ditch, driving a truck, or working retail for a while, "rank-and-filers." You wouldn't last a day. And a customer would probably punch your lights out. We're tempted to do so just on general principles.