All New York Will Feel Wall Street's Pain

Bloomberg unveils $45M program

(NEWSER) - With the Wall Street mess taking a heavy toll on New York City's economy, Mayor Bloomberg is launching a program to retrain laid-off investment bankers and make the city a mecca for entrepreneurs and foreign financial firms. The city plans to spend $45 million in federal and city money to seed new businesses—ideally created by those very same laid-off bankers and traders—and provide office space for them, the New York Times reports. More»

Mayor aims to change NYC's term-limits law

(NEWSER) - New York insiders say Mayor Michael Bloomberg will attempt to change existing laws and run for a third term, the Times reports, with his announcement to come Thursday. After long supporting term limits, Bloomberg, 66, has softened, with the financial crisis seen as a significant motivator. If successful, Bloomberg would be the fourth three-term mayor in modern times. More»

Bloomberg blames unions for biggest layoff of administration

(NEWSER) - New York City is slashing 777 Education Department jobs, sending school aides, family workers, parent coordinators, and drivers packing due to budget cuts, reports the New York Times . Teachers, however, are exempt from the biggest single-agency layoff since Michael Bloomberg became mayor in 2002, thanks to a deal brokered between their union and Bloomberg's administration in June, More»

Cradle of US capitalism about to fall to Deutsche Börse

(NEWSER) - The raucous cathedral of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange, is about to be bought by the Germans. If regulators approve the deal, the acquisition of NYSE Euronext (which owns the NYSE) by Deutsche Börse AG (which owns the Frankfurt stock exchange) would create the world's largest financial exchange. The move is bound to face intense scrutiny from regulators in Europe, where the new operation would dominate trade, and in Washington, where acquisition by a foreign company will pique nationalist sentiment, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»

Polling guru gives a post-mortem on last night's elections

(NEWSER) - The numbers are in, now it's time to make sense of them. Nate Silver breaks down last night's election results:

• Don’t blame Obama; Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine were probably just weak candidates. In New Jersey, 57% of voters approved of Obama, but 27% of those supporters voted Republican anyway. In Virginia 20% of those who approved of Obama voted GOP.
• Democrats had turnout problems in Virginia; the voters who came out last night supported McCain 51-43 in 2008, a mirror image of that year's margin.