New Wall Street: Less Risk, Less Innovation, Lower Pay

Paulson brokers twin public-private liquidity measures

(NEWSER) - Ten of the world's largest banks have formed a massive liquidity fund to mitigate the effects of the Lehman Brothers meltdown, reports the Financial Times. All the investment banks will be able to borrow up to a third of the $70 billion fund in order to reduce volatility and stay in business while Lehman is being wound down. They will also be able to borrow from the Fed under newly relaxed terms. More»

(NEWSER) - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the nation's last two major independent investment banks, have gotten permission to become bank holding companies, the Federal Reserve said tonight. A fundamental rearrangement of Wall Street, the move will allow them to create commercial banks, which would bolster their resources, while inviting increased regulation. It reflects the Fed's determination not to let Goldman and Morgan Stanley fail, the New York Times notes. More»

Under pressure to keep talent, losing firms shell out big

(NEWSER) - The Big Five Wall Street securities firms will pay $38 billion in bonuses this year—up from $36 billion last year—while shareholders tote up $74 billion in losses, their worst year since 2002, Bloomberg reports. All but Goldman Sachs lost more than 20% of their market value, says an analyst, but "they're all going to have to fall into line. If Bear and Merrill plead poverty, they're going to lose all of their good people.'' More»

James Stewart on the week that Lehman failed, and meltdown loomed

(NEWSER) - James Stewart’s reconstruction of the 8 nail-biting days, a year ago, in which the federal government stepped in to stop the collapse of the world financial system—published in the New Yorker this week, just as Fed chief Ben Bernanke was declaring the recession officially over—makes riveting, tense reading. “I don’t think I can take another day of this,” one banker says getting out of the Goldman Sachs car on Day 4. “You’re getting out of a Mercedes to go to the New York Federal Reserve,” snaps Bernanke. “You’re not getting out of a Higgins Boat on Omaha Beach.” Not quite, at least. More»

It's not just the firings: others are leaving for safer jobs

(NEWSER) - The financial crisis is reshaping not just the landscape of Wall Street, but its face as well, reports the New York Times in a look at the hemorrhaging of the Street's top talent. Layoffs aside, finance's best and brightest—arguably the same daring risk-takers responsible for the recession—are seizing the chance to retire early, or more often, fleeing federally overseen big banks in favor of more cash and opportunity at smaller boutiques. More»