Pity the reporters at the business desk of the New York Times. Things just won’t be the same now that the Wall Street downturn is accelerating into a free fall.
At least that’s the message the paper is sending with two stories documenting changes people in the financial elite are making. The lead story in the Sunday Business section is essentially a eulogy to the good times on Wall Street. In “Goodbye To All That,” the Times says goodbye to the second gilded age – and what a send-off. No more Lincoln Town Cars waiting outside Lehman Brothers (and later at night, outside Scores, the high-end strip club). No more $100,000 weddings at the Plaza hotel.
The previous day’s story, also on the front page of the Business section, told other tales of woe. Apparently the super-rich are having to cut back on their expenses. People are passing on expensive wine auctions, selling yachts and private jets, and potentially missing vacations in the Caribbean that cost up to $350,000 for a two-week stay (for board only).
Very little distinguishes the two articles, and it seems like there’s another message hiding under the surface. New York Times reporters are bummed this is all coming to the end. Isn’t it a critique of reporters that we just like to bask in other peoples’ glow and live vicariously through their successes?
Reporters like to cover glitz and glamor because it makes them feel glitzy and glamorous, too. And in both these stories, there’s an audible sigh as the writers lament the end of the good times. The article on Sunday mentions the downturn in the Greenwich, Conn. real estate market. Sure, the reporters might not own $14 million mansions in Greenwich, but they loved to hear about how the renovations were going. “Is the ice-skating rink finished yet, Steve?” Times reporters probably didn’t go to Scores very often, but they undoubtedly heard some wild stories.
We learned another thing about the writers on the Times’ business desk—they love quoting bar owner Harry Poulakakos. He is the lead anecdote to the Sunday story. ”I hope this is going to be over, Poulakakos said in the piece. “If Wall Street is not active, nothing is active.”
Poulakakos’ bar, Harry’s, is a Wall Street institution, glorified in Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. Poulakakos himself is a New York Times institution. Need some local Wall Street color? Go to Harry’s. The bar was the backdrop to a story that ran on Sept. 19, documenting what the previous four days were like as insurance company A.I.G. collapsed and the Dow began to drop.
Poulakakos is a great source because he’s reliable. Quoted in the Sept. 19 story he said, “In 1988, it was my biggest year ever because people decided they needed to get together face-to-face and talk business.”
Who knows when Wall Street will begin to recover. Chances are, though, we’ll get a story from the New York Times about increased sales of private jets. And then someone will head on down to Harry’s and see what the old man thinks about things. We hear he’s a pretty good quote.
Tags: end of an era, harry poulakakos, new york times, wall street