NY Mag covers the "Top-Down Recession"a phenomenon that consists almost entirely of massive job cuts in the finance sector at the top levels. The "deal guys" on Wall Street who pushed the idiotic mergers and ludicrous IPOs during boomtimes were always the people who made the most money. Now they're the only people who make money. The new universal bonus plan is "eat what you kill," meaning that if you're not bringing in new deals, you're not taking home a paycheck. The number of people capable of doing that dwindles every day as more investment bankers get pink-slipped, and increasingly, handcuffed.
Down and out on Wall Street [NY Mag]