Trump tower Chicago complaint: Bright lights are a big pain
Though my first reaction was "Erm, they're called blinds, or curtains. Anyone that can buy a condo for just under a mil should know that." On da udder hand, if you're gonna buy a condo for just under a mil, I think that earns you the right to bitch to Trump about anything you want to. Just don't put it in the paper. The rest of us couldn't give a ...
Showing posts with label tough times for plutocrats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tough times for plutocrats. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, September 15, 2008
Should this be scary?
Or is this just CNN trying to bring today's failed banks into today's political campaign in an unexpected yet irrelevant way...
Obama, McCain big beneficiaries of Wall Street
Posted: 10:31 AM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(CNN) — Both Barack Obama and John McCain have strongly benefited from Wall Street this election cycle, an analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics reports.
According to the non-partisan research organization, employees of security and investment firms have donated nearly $10 million to Barack Obama this year and close to $7 million to McCain's presidential bid.
McCain has particularly benefited from Merrill Lynch, the global financial services firm whose sale to Bank of America shook Wall Street Monday morning. He has raised nearly $300,000 from Merrill employees this year — more than any other firm.
Barack Obama, meanwhile, has strongly benefited from employees of Lehman Brothers, the financial firm that filed for bankruptcy Monday morning. The Illinois senator has raised approximately $370,000 from Lehman employees this year, more than three times what McCain has raised from employees of the failing firm.
Both McCain and Obama sharply criticized Wall Street practices Monday morning, and are calling for more regulation in the investment industry.
Obama, McCain big beneficiaries of Wall Street
Posted: 10:31 AM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
(CNN) — Both Barack Obama and John McCain have strongly benefited from Wall Street this election cycle, an analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics reports.
According to the non-partisan research organization, employees of security and investment firms have donated nearly $10 million to Barack Obama this year and close to $7 million to McCain's presidential bid.
McCain has particularly benefited from Merrill Lynch, the global financial services firm whose sale to Bank of America shook Wall Street Monday morning. He has raised nearly $300,000 from Merrill employees this year — more than any other firm.
Barack Obama, meanwhile, has strongly benefited from employees of Lehman Brothers, the financial firm that filed for bankruptcy Monday morning. The Illinois senator has raised approximately $370,000 from Lehman employees this year, more than three times what McCain has raised from employees of the failing firm.
Both McCain and Obama sharply criticized Wall Street practices Monday morning, and are calling for more regulation in the investment industry.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
tough times for plutocrats (cont'd)
Summer: The living wasn't so easy
Crain's, Sept. 1, 2008
He and his wife are empty-nesters wanting to sell their newly remodeled, $1.2-million River Forest home and move into a downtown condo. They first listed their house in June 2007, then took it off the market two months later to make some improvements. In May, they listed the house again and prepared for a sale. They're still waiting.
"When we relisted the house in the spring, I figured that by Labor Day we'd be downtown when the fall season of social events takes place... It would be great to go home and change for an event without having to drive back and forth."
The constant showings, too, made for a wearying summer. "The frustration level of dealing with buyers who've been back six times just wears you down," he says. "My wife says if they come back a seventh time, we're not making the bed."
North Shore real estate agent and avid sailor ....., 46, also has had to scale back. Her son ...., 17, a junior at New Trier High School in Winnetka, and daughter ...., 19, a sophomore at Connecticut College, both sail competitively. It's a pricey sport: Competing internationally can cost from $30,000 to $100,000 a year, including entry fees, travel, accommodations, boat charters, coaching and equipment, she says.
Though Ms. .... and her husband, ...., also a broker, are working harder than ever for every sale, they were unwilling to cut back on the number of trials their children compete in. So they're still traveling, but not in the style they're accustomed to.
"You know those dingy motels off the interstate with the hurricane fence around the pool?" Ms. .... says, referring to her family's frequent trips to Florida for competitions. "I used to think, who would stay there? Well, that's me now, sitting there on the concrete patio with my laptop and cell phone."
More accustomed to the Four Seasons, Ms. .... now takes along a suitcase filled with pressed table linens to wrap the mattresses in. "You can't be too careful," she says.
. . .
There was another perk in being the rare American in a European city for ...., 31, a special events coordinator at Loyola University Chicago. A flea market vendor in Florence, Italy, sold her a leather purse at half his asking price because he felt sorry for her. "I just pleaded and pleaded with this guy," she says. "Finally he said, 'OK. You Americans don't have it easy, I know.'"
Crain's, Sept. 1, 2008
He and his wife are empty-nesters wanting to sell their newly remodeled, $1.2-million River Forest home and move into a downtown condo. They first listed their house in June 2007, then took it off the market two months later to make some improvements. In May, they listed the house again and prepared for a sale. They're still waiting.
"When we relisted the house in the spring, I figured that by Labor Day we'd be downtown when the fall season of social events takes place... It would be great to go home and change for an event without having to drive back and forth."
The constant showings, too, made for a wearying summer. "The frustration level of dealing with buyers who've been back six times just wears you down," he says. "My wife says if they come back a seventh time, we're not making the bed."
North Shore real estate agent and avid sailor ....., 46, also has had to scale back. Her son ...., 17, a junior at New Trier High School in Winnetka, and daughter ...., 19, a sophomore at Connecticut College, both sail competitively. It's a pricey sport: Competing internationally can cost from $30,000 to $100,000 a year, including entry fees, travel, accommodations, boat charters, coaching and equipment, she says.
Though Ms. .... and her husband, ...., also a broker, are working harder than ever for every sale, they were unwilling to cut back on the number of trials their children compete in. So they're still traveling, but not in the style they're accustomed to.
"You know those dingy motels off the interstate with the hurricane fence around the pool?" Ms. .... says, referring to her family's frequent trips to Florida for competitions. "I used to think, who would stay there? Well, that's me now, sitting there on the concrete patio with my laptop and cell phone."
More accustomed to the Four Seasons, Ms. .... now takes along a suitcase filled with pressed table linens to wrap the mattresses in. "You can't be too careful," she says.
. . .
There was another perk in being the rare American in a European city for ...., 31, a special events coordinator at Loyola University Chicago. A flea market vendor in Florence, Italy, sold her a leather purse at half his asking price because he felt sorry for her. "I just pleaded and pleaded with this guy," she says. "Finally he said, 'OK. You Americans don't have it easy, I know.'"
Monday, August 4, 2008
Another way that we, a grateful Nation, can help our Noble Plutocrats through this difficult time of cheap caviar and less lavish pieds-à-terre
Companies Tap Pension Plans To Fund Executive Benefits
Little-Known Move Uses Tax Break Meant For Rank and File
Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2008; Page A1
At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting their pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefits and pay.
In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation.
The practice has drawn scant notice. A close examination by The Wall Street Journal shows how it works and reveals that the maneuver, besides being a dubious use of tax law, risks harming regular workers. It can drain assets from pension plans and make them more likely to fail. Now, with the current bear market in stocks weakening many pension plans, this practice could put more in jeopardy...
Little-Known Move Uses Tax Break Meant For Rank and File
Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2008; Page A1
At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting their pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefits and pay.
In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation.
The practice has drawn scant notice. A close examination by The Wall Street Journal shows how it works and reveals that the maneuver, besides being a dubious use of tax law, risks harming regular workers. It can drain assets from pension plans and make them more likely to fail. Now, with the current bear market in stocks weakening many pension plans, this practice could put more in jeopardy...
Sunday, August 3, 2008
tough times for plutocrats (cont'd)
Rich begin feeling the pain in down economy
They are investing more conservatively, spending less on luxury goods and are being more thrifty with their credit cards. Many are asking their personal shoppers and private-jet travel providers to seek the best deals rather than over-the-top extravagances.
They are investing more conservatively, spending less on luxury goods and are being more thrifty with their credit cards. Many are asking their personal shoppers and private-jet travel providers to seek the best deals rather than over-the-top extravagances.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
tough times for plutocrats (cont'd)
Global wealth hits $40.7 trillion but growth slows
LONDON (Reuters) - Assets held by the world's richest people grew at a slower pace in 2007 than 2006 as the credit crisis began to bite, a study showed on Tuesday, despite rapid growth in emerging markets.
However, growth over the coming five years is forecast to be higher than last year's predictions, as U.S. economic growth eventually picks up and emerging markets continue to beat analysts' forecasts. (YAY! - Ed.)
The Merrill Lynch and Capgemini Annual World Wealth Report showed global assets held by wealthy investors rose by 9.4 percent to $40.7 trillion (20.6 trillion pounds) in 2007, below 2006's 11.4 percent growth, with the second half of the year seeing a slowdown in Western economies.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Awesome...
Though Briggs might disagree - I'm all for this:
Illinois Sues Countrywide By GRETCHEN MORGENSON Published: June 25, 2008
The Illinois attorney general is suing Countrywide Financial, the troubled mortgage lender, and Angelo R. Mozilo, its chief executive, contending that the company and its executives defrauded borrowers in the state by selling them costly and defective loans that quickly went into foreclosure.
The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed on Wednesday in Illinois state court, accused Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo of relaxing underwriting standards, structuring loans with risky features, and misleading consumers with hidden fees and fake marketing claims, like its heavily advertised “no closing costs loan.” Countrywide also created incentives for its employees and brokers to sell questionable loans by paying them more on such sales, the complaint said.
In reviewing one Illinois mortgage broker’s sales of Countrywide loans, the complaint said the “vast majority of the loans had inflated income, almost all without the borrower’s knowledge.”
The civil lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and requests that the court require Countrywide to rescind or reform all the questionable loans it sold from 2004 through the present. The attorney general, Lisa Madigan, also asked that Mr. Mozilo contribute personally to the damages and that the court give her office 90 days to review loans serviced by Countrywide that were in foreclosure or soon would be.
“People were put into loans they did not understand, could not afford and could not get out of,” Ms. Madigan said. “This mounting disaster has had an impact on individual homeowners statewide and is having an impact on the global economy. It is all from the greed of people like Angelo Mozilo.”
The lawsuit adds to the considerable legal risks facing Bank of America as it prepares to absorb Countrywide in a takeover announced in January. Countrywide and its executives have been named as defendants in shareholder lawsuits, and the company’s practices are the subject of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the F.B.I. and the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees loan servicing companies.
The United States Trustee, a unit of the Justice Department that monitors the bankruptcy system, has also sued Countrywide, contending that its loan servicing practices represent an abuse of the bankruptcy system.
Countrywide did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
Countrywide, once the nation’s top mortgage lender, has watched its fortunes plummet as the housing crisis has spread across the country. In the last three quarters, the company reported $2.5 billion in losses, and in the first quarter of 2008, total nonperforming assets reached $6 billion, almost five times that of the same period last year.
When Bank of America announced its stock-for-stock deal to buy Countrywide, the acquisition was valued at more than $4 billion. Because shares of both companies have fallen, the transaction is worth $2.8 billion.
The Illinois complaint was derived from 111,000 pages of Countrywide documents and interviews with former employees. It paints a picture of a lending machine that was more concerned with volume of loans than quality.
For example, former employees told Illinois investigators that Countrywide’s pay structure encouraged them to make as many loans as they could; some reduced-documentation loans took as little as 30 minutes to underwrite, the complaint said.
The lawsuit cited Countrywide documents indicating that almost 60 percent of its borrowers in subprime adjustable rate mortgages requiring minimal payments in the early years, known as hybrid A.R.M.’s, would not have qualified at the full payment rate. Countrywide also acknowledged that almost 25 percent of the borrowers would not have qualified for any other mortgage product that it sold.
Even more surprising, Ms. Madigan said, was her office’s discovery of e-mail messages automatically sent by Countrywide to its borrowers offering complimentary loan reviews one year after they obtained their mortgages from the company.
“Happy Anniversary!” the e-mail messages stated. “Many home values skyrocketed over the past year. That means that you may have thousands of dollars of home equity to borrow from at rates much lower than most credit cards.”
Ms. Madigan said, “I was just struck that on the first anniversary of these people’s loans they would get these e-mails luring them into a refinance, into another unaffordable product to generate more fees and originate more loans.”
The complaint also described dubious practices in Countrywide’s huge servicing arm, which oversees $1.5 trillion in loans. For example, an Illinois consumer whose Countrywide mortgage was in foreclosure came home to find that the company had changed her locks and boarded up her home, the suit said, although no judgment had been entered and no foreclosure sale conducted. It took a week for the homeowner to regain access to her home, the complaint said.
Ms. Madigan began investigating Countrywide after her office sued One Source Mortgage, a Chicago mortgage broker that shut down last year. Countrywide was One Source’s primary lender, according to that lawsuit. Ms. Madigan also said that her office had received 200 customer complaints about Countrywide.
For 2004 through 2006, Countrywide was the largest lender in Illinois, selling about 94,000 loans to consumers in the state, the complaint said. The company operated about 100 retail branch offices in Illinois and its loans were offered by many mortgage brokers licensed to do business there. Countrywide also purchased loans through a network of 2,100 correspondent lenders in the state.
Illinois Sues Countrywide By GRETCHEN MORGENSON Published: June 25, 2008
The Illinois attorney general is suing Countrywide Financial, the troubled mortgage lender, and Angelo R. Mozilo, its chief executive, contending that the company and its executives defrauded borrowers in the state by selling them costly and defective loans that quickly went into foreclosure.
The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed on Wednesday in Illinois state court, accused Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo of relaxing underwriting standards, structuring loans with risky features, and misleading consumers with hidden fees and fake marketing claims, like its heavily advertised “no closing costs loan.” Countrywide also created incentives for its employees and brokers to sell questionable loans by paying them more on such sales, the complaint said.
In reviewing one Illinois mortgage broker’s sales of Countrywide loans, the complaint said the “vast majority of the loans had inflated income, almost all without the borrower’s knowledge.”
The civil lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and requests that the court require Countrywide to rescind or reform all the questionable loans it sold from 2004 through the present. The attorney general, Lisa Madigan, also asked that Mr. Mozilo contribute personally to the damages and that the court give her office 90 days to review loans serviced by Countrywide that were in foreclosure or soon would be.
“People were put into loans they did not understand, could not afford and could not get out of,” Ms. Madigan said. “This mounting disaster has had an impact on individual homeowners statewide and is having an impact on the global economy. It is all from the greed of people like Angelo Mozilo.”
The lawsuit adds to the considerable legal risks facing Bank of America as it prepares to absorb Countrywide in a takeover announced in January. Countrywide and its executives have been named as defendants in shareholder lawsuits, and the company’s practices are the subject of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the F.B.I. and the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees loan servicing companies.
The United States Trustee, a unit of the Justice Department that monitors the bankruptcy system, has also sued Countrywide, contending that its loan servicing practices represent an abuse of the bankruptcy system.
Countrywide did not respond to an e-mail message seeking comment. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
Countrywide, once the nation’s top mortgage lender, has watched its fortunes plummet as the housing crisis has spread across the country. In the last three quarters, the company reported $2.5 billion in losses, and in the first quarter of 2008, total nonperforming assets reached $6 billion, almost five times that of the same period last year.
When Bank of America announced its stock-for-stock deal to buy Countrywide, the acquisition was valued at more than $4 billion. Because shares of both companies have fallen, the transaction is worth $2.8 billion.
The Illinois complaint was derived from 111,000 pages of Countrywide documents and interviews with former employees. It paints a picture of a lending machine that was more concerned with volume of loans than quality.
For example, former employees told Illinois investigators that Countrywide’s pay structure encouraged them to make as many loans as they could; some reduced-documentation loans took as little as 30 minutes to underwrite, the complaint said.
The lawsuit cited Countrywide documents indicating that almost 60 percent of its borrowers in subprime adjustable rate mortgages requiring minimal payments in the early years, known as hybrid A.R.M.’s, would not have qualified at the full payment rate. Countrywide also acknowledged that almost 25 percent of the borrowers would not have qualified for any other mortgage product that it sold.
Even more surprising, Ms. Madigan said, was her office’s discovery of e-mail messages automatically sent by Countrywide to its borrowers offering complimentary loan reviews one year after they obtained their mortgages from the company.
“Happy Anniversary!” the e-mail messages stated. “Many home values skyrocketed over the past year. That means that you may have thousands of dollars of home equity to borrow from at rates much lower than most credit cards.”
Ms. Madigan said, “I was just struck that on the first anniversary of these people’s loans they would get these e-mails luring them into a refinance, into another unaffordable product to generate more fees and originate more loans.”
The complaint also described dubious practices in Countrywide’s huge servicing arm, which oversees $1.5 trillion in loans. For example, an Illinois consumer whose Countrywide mortgage was in foreclosure came home to find that the company had changed her locks and boarded up her home, the suit said, although no judgment had been entered and no foreclosure sale conducted. It took a week for the homeowner to regain access to her home, the complaint said.
Ms. Madigan began investigating Countrywide after her office sued One Source Mortgage, a Chicago mortgage broker that shut down last year. Countrywide was One Source’s primary lender, according to that lawsuit. Ms. Madigan also said that her office had received 200 customer complaints about Countrywide.
For 2004 through 2006, Countrywide was the largest lender in Illinois, selling about 94,000 loans to consumers in the state, the complaint said. The company operated about 100 retail branch offices in Illinois and its loans were offered by many mortgage brokers licensed to do business there. Countrywide also purchased loans through a network of 2,100 correspondent lenders in the state.
Monday, June 2, 2008
tough times for plutocrats (cont'd)
It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
NYT June 1, 2008
NANCY CHEMTOB, a divorce lawyer in Manhattan, has found that her days have become crammed seeing clients, all worried about how an economic downturn will affect their marriages.
They seem to have nothing to fret about: their net worths range from $5 million to $1 billion. A blip in the markets shouldn’t send their chateau-size Park Avenue co-ops to foreclosure or exile them to Payless Shoes.
But Ms. Chemtob’s clients are concerned all the same, she said, because their incomes have shrunk, say, to $2 million a year from $8 million, and they know that their 2008 bonus checks are likely to be much less impressive.
One of her clients recently confessed that his net worth had decreased to $8 million from more than $20 million, and he thinks that his wife will leave him. He has hidden their fall in fortune by taking on debt to pay for her extravagant clothes and vacations.
“I literally had to sit there and tell him that he had to tell his wife that she had to stop spending,” she said. “He was actually scared she would leave him because their financial situation changed so drastically.”
...
Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of “less” may be. Hairstylists and private jet rental companies say the wealthy are cutting back on luxuries like $350 highlights and $10,000-an-hour jet rentals. Even nutritionists and personal trainers notice a problem. The wealthy are eating more and gaining weight because of the stress.
...
THEIR spouses could leave them when they discover that their net worth has collapsed to eight figures from nine. Friends and business associates could avoid them as they pass their lunchtime tables at Barney’s or the Four Seasons. And these snubs could trickle down to their children.
“They fear their kids won’t get invited to the right birthday parties,” said Michele Kleier, an Upper East Side-based real estate broker. “If they have to give up things that are invisible, they’re O.K. as long as they don’t have give up things visible to the outside world.”
So New York’s very wealthy are addressing their distress in discreet and often awkward ways. They try to move their $165 sessions with personal trainers to a time slot that they know is already taken. They agree to tour multimillion-dollar apartments and then say the spaces don’t match their specifications. They apply for a line of credit before art auctions, supposedly to buy a painting or a sculpture, but use that borrowed money to pay other debts.
...
Other wealthy clients are cutting luxuries that they think their friends and relatives won’t notice, according to Mr. Del Gatto of Circa. At Circa’s midtown offices, he said, the seven consultation rooms have been busy with customers selling their precious gems. Some older couples, he said, are selling estate jewelry to help support their children who have lost Wall Street jobs. Bankers are paring down their collections of Patek Philippe watches. Wives from Greenwich and Scarsdale are selling 2-carat to 35-carat single-stone diamond rings. One recent client explained to Mr. Del Gatto that she was selling $2 million in diamonds she rarely wore, because her friends wouldn’t notice that they were gone.
“She said, ‘If I sold my Bentley or my important art, they would notice,’ ” he said. “That we hear, in differing examples, every day.”
...
Justin Sullivan, managing director of Regent Jet, which leases private airplanes, said most clients in real estate and on Wall Street are switching to chartered jets over private jets, and cutting their flight budgets by about 25 percent. One New York real estate developer cut his budget to less than $250,000 a year from $1.5 million a year.
“A year ago, he would have only flown Gulfstreams,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Now it’s moving to the point where he’s flying Beech jets and Learjets.”
Some wealthy New Yorkers are even cutting back on relatively smaller things. At J Sisters, a midtown Manhattan salon where celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Gwyneth Paltrow mingle with Wall Street clients, stylists and colorists say they hear about money worries all day. On a spring afternoon, a half-dozen hairstylists to the very wealthy talked about how customers are stretching their $350 highlights and $150 haircuts to every eight weeks instead of six weeks. Some women are cutting out highlights entirely, saying they would “rather be brunettes.”
...
Clay Burwell, a personal trainer to many Wall Street executives, said that his clients were also feeling the toll. A year of eating more, drinking more and working longer hours has started to hurt their health.
“They come into the gym with a dark storm cloud over their head,” he said. “They look like hell.”
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
NYT June 1, 2008
NANCY CHEMTOB, a divorce lawyer in Manhattan, has found that her days have become crammed seeing clients, all worried about how an economic downturn will affect their marriages.
They seem to have nothing to fret about: their net worths range from $5 million to $1 billion. A blip in the markets shouldn’t send their chateau-size Park Avenue co-ops to foreclosure or exile them to Payless Shoes.
But Ms. Chemtob’s clients are concerned all the same, she said, because their incomes have shrunk, say, to $2 million a year from $8 million, and they know that their 2008 bonus checks are likely to be much less impressive.
One of her clients recently confessed that his net worth had decreased to $8 million from more than $20 million, and he thinks that his wife will leave him. He has hidden their fall in fortune by taking on debt to pay for her extravagant clothes and vacations.
“I literally had to sit there and tell him that he had to tell his wife that she had to stop spending,” she said. “He was actually scared she would leave him because their financial situation changed so drastically.”
...
Interviews with the people who actually see the bank statements, like divorce lawyers and lenders, say their clients are definitely living on less than they did a year ago, regardless of how expansive the definition of “less” may be. Hairstylists and private jet rental companies say the wealthy are cutting back on luxuries like $350 highlights and $10,000-an-hour jet rentals. Even nutritionists and personal trainers notice a problem. The wealthy are eating more and gaining weight because of the stress.
...
THEIR spouses could leave them when they discover that their net worth has collapsed to eight figures from nine. Friends and business associates could avoid them as they pass their lunchtime tables at Barney’s or the Four Seasons. And these snubs could trickle down to their children.
“They fear their kids won’t get invited to the right birthday parties,” said Michele Kleier, an Upper East Side-based real estate broker. “If they have to give up things that are invisible, they’re O.K. as long as they don’t have give up things visible to the outside world.”
So New York’s very wealthy are addressing their distress in discreet and often awkward ways. They try to move their $165 sessions with personal trainers to a time slot that they know is already taken. They agree to tour multimillion-dollar apartments and then say the spaces don’t match their specifications. They apply for a line of credit before art auctions, supposedly to buy a painting or a sculpture, but use that borrowed money to pay other debts.
...
Other wealthy clients are cutting luxuries that they think their friends and relatives won’t notice, according to Mr. Del Gatto of Circa. At Circa’s midtown offices, he said, the seven consultation rooms have been busy with customers selling their precious gems. Some older couples, he said, are selling estate jewelry to help support their children who have lost Wall Street jobs. Bankers are paring down their collections of Patek Philippe watches. Wives from Greenwich and Scarsdale are selling 2-carat to 35-carat single-stone diamond rings. One recent client explained to Mr. Del Gatto that she was selling $2 million in diamonds she rarely wore, because her friends wouldn’t notice that they were gone.
“She said, ‘If I sold my Bentley or my important art, they would notice,’ ” he said. “That we hear, in differing examples, every day.”
...
Justin Sullivan, managing director of Regent Jet, which leases private airplanes, said most clients in real estate and on Wall Street are switching to chartered jets over private jets, and cutting their flight budgets by about 25 percent. One New York real estate developer cut his budget to less than $250,000 a year from $1.5 million a year.
“A year ago, he would have only flown Gulfstreams,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Now it’s moving to the point where he’s flying Beech jets and Learjets.”
Some wealthy New Yorkers are even cutting back on relatively smaller things. At J Sisters, a midtown Manhattan salon where celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Gwyneth Paltrow mingle with Wall Street clients, stylists and colorists say they hear about money worries all day. On a spring afternoon, a half-dozen hairstylists to the very wealthy talked about how customers are stretching their $350 highlights and $150 haircuts to every eight weeks instead of six weeks. Some women are cutting out highlights entirely, saying they would “rather be brunettes.”
...
Clay Burwell, a personal trainer to many Wall Street executives, said that his clients were also feeling the toll. A year of eating more, drinking more and working longer hours has started to hurt their health.
“They come into the gym with a dark storm cloud over their head,” he said. “They look like hell.”
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