Those dealmaking suits that have become the essence of Wall Street may go the way of longshoremen in New York City — few and far between. The New York Post published an article on Monday, Jan. 22, that a report from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer stated Wall Street could lose up to 60,000 jobs by 2012 unless the government loosens its stringent regulations.
Overall, the report went on to say New York City could lose as much as $25 billion in cash flows that Wall Street now generates. Those startling figures would certainly dampen the economic engine of Lower Manhattan and the New York City area. Industries such as the real estate sector, where the $1 million apartment in Manhattan has become the norm, and the luxury auto sectors, where the BMW has become the ride of choice, would just be two sectors that would suffer from a Wall Street downsizing.
The financial services industry on Wall Street accounts for only about 5% of all private jobs in New York City but each job seems to have a much greater impact on the Big Apple's economy. By 2000, one job on the Street created at least two jobs in the city and one more job in the region, according to the City Journal, a New York City urban policy magazine.
If that's to continue, the report suggests that the government should set up a new congressional body to oversee financial services; reduce Homeland Security red tape to make it easier for foreign experts to obtain working visas; and create a special international zone that would allow businesses to operate under a more liberal set of tax and regulatory rules than ordinarily allowed in the U.S.
"The last thing that New York and the country need is to wake up one morning and find we are no longer the financial capital of the world," Sen. Schumer said
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