Young Hopefuls Hit Hard by Credit Crunch

The sad eyes of interns watched Wall Street's precipitous drop all week. These "lackeys," who had worked all summer at investment firms, can no longer expect to  retire at 35 with houses in the Hamptons and "a closetful of Brioni suits and Hermès ties," David Bledin writes in the Washington Post. Nor will they endure years of 90-hour weeks and suicidal impulses.

Bledin was once a financial analyst and hated it. But he still felt "enormous sympathy" when Lehman workers lugged "cardboard boxes out of their offices. They had slogged through the worst part of banking without seeing much of the upside." Still, those who last will be in a small talent pool when markets recover—and are destined to become "the black-card-carrying titans of tomorrow." (More Wall Street stories.)