The Saddest Protest Ever
You'd think there would be a strong undercurrent of frustration and resentment among Wall Streeters right now. The public is trying to blame on us for everything! Politicians are threatening to tax our bonuses! If bankers do happen to be really, really angry about how they've turned into enemy No. 1 in recent months, don't expect them to take the matter to the streets.
A bunch of brokers and traders got together recently to set up the Wall Street equivalent of the Tea Party movement. Then they invited the media to what they promised would be a huge rally, a sea of blue suits joining together to finally fight back. It didn't turn out as expected:
And so a rally was organized at lunchtime on the 23rd floor of 14 Wall Street, directly across the street from the New York Stock Exchange, in the cushy offices of John Thomas Financial, a three-year-old investment house. It was much more comfortable than, say, the street.
As Thomas Belesis, the 35-year-old chief executive of John Thomas who hatched the idea, put it, "It's cold out."
[A]bout 30 of the attendees were from elsewhere on Wall Street. The rest were the brokers and traders at John Thomas. Since the rally was held on the firm's 25,000-square-foot trading floor, where some 100 brokers had their desks, most of the attendees were basically working.
The next time they try this sort of thing, it had better be a sunny spring or summer day. On a Saturday or Sunday. And some complimentary food and drink better be involved. Otherwise this movement is totally doomed.
