"The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only
in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.” —Ethel Percy Andrus, Educator

Dead Men Walking: An Economic 9/11 for Wall Street

Carefully calculated careers, Ivy League pedigrees, hard won MBA’s, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude, high school debating teams, college rowing teams, wrestling championships, perfect SAT, LSAT, and GMAT scores…They made all the right moves.

Yet somehow the right schools, grades, tests, interviews, internships, scholarships, clubs, and connections cannot reverse the fate of some of the finest careers on Wall Street. The thousands of professionally pedigreed high achievers find themselves pushed out, bought out, laid-off, or bankrupted in the chaotic financial roller coaster of 2008.

A top manager at Lehman Brothers described the collapse of the 158 year white shoe firm as an “economic 9/11.” And so it is for the thousands of unemployed and shell-shocked privileged masses who walk dazed and confused through the wreckage of the markets.

No Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, or investment bank is left standing in the economic rubble of the crisis. The human toll in the financial industry is numbered at 90,000 unemployed and growing. The Wall Street world as we knew it has ended in the space of a few short weeks.

Fear grips the Streets where the World Trade Center once stood. What’s next? More to the point, who is next? Not everyone feels sympathy for the privileged unemployed. Many ordinary folks feel Wall Street’s pain is well-earned and well-deserved.

Yet for the thousands of casualties in the middle of their carefully planned careers, their pain is real. One Lehman banker called them, “Dead Men Walking. “ He exalted his fixed income sales force at a final meeting, “This isn’t your fault. You were the best team in the business. You didn’t do this.” True enough in many ways. They were hit by a perfect storm of toxic securities, real-estate declines, and reckless management. The responsibility for Lehman’s hard fall seems to rest firmly on the shoulders of the indignant CEO Dick Fuld, the self-serving president Joe Gregory, and the seemingly emasculated Operating Committee.

Lehman’s fixed income division was renowned on Wall Street as one of the best in the business. Top traders, sales people, bankers, managers, thousands of support personnel from assistants to the secretary pools, Lehman had built a phenomenal team. These esteemed members of the financial community now flounder in their carefully planned careers and compete for jobs that only a handful will secure. It confirms that no matter how cautiously you plan or carefully you choose, your life’s direction can change in a moment due to events out of your control.

That’s true for all of us. That’s how life goes.

One unemployed trader confessed his worries to a colleague. His friend reminded him of all the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, ball games, concerts, back-to-school nights, and family reunions the demands of his career had forced him to miss. He remembered the long working weekends, the Blackberry vacations, and the extended business trips separated by continents from those he loved. He said, “This just might be the best year of your life.”

Sudden unemployment with all its worries and woes can have unexpected perks. We can recover lost time with loved ones, family and friends, and reconnect to the person we once were.  In these quiet moments, we can reflect on what has the greatest value in our lives.  We can ask ourselves: Who do I most care about? What am I doing all this for anyway? The moments of crisis in our lives are the perfect crossroads to search for deeper meaning. These challenges create opportunities to transform our ourselves and reexamine our goals. Am I here on this earth only to make money? Or am I here with the greater purpose of creating value? The financial community can use this extraordinary time to revalue its contributions to self, colleagues and family, and last but never least - humanity.

It may be the only way to bring the dead back to life.

Love on The Street

TLOA Fund

Wall Street traders and market movers tend not to speak publicly about love. Not so with the TLOA Fund founded by top Wall Street managers. TLOA stands for "To Love One Another." The Fund is based on the principle of brotherly love expressed by Father Mychal Judge, the first official casualty of the September 11, 2001 attacks. To honor Father Mike and continue his dedication to those in need the Fund “supports and empowers afflicted youth, and helps those who suffer from addiction to lead healthy and productive lives.” The Fund was founded by James Solano, a director for Deutsche Bank’s Institutional Capital Markets and Michael Walker, Senior Distressed Trader at Citadel Investment Group, one of the largest hedge funds in the industry. TLOA’s non-Wall Street co-founder and director is Steven McDonald , the decorated New York City detective who was shot and permanently paralyzed in the line of duty in 1989. McDonald has spent the last two decades spreading his message of forgiveness and non-violence.
TLOA Fund supports, among others, the CREATE Inc. Foundation, a social service organization in Harlem headed by Father Christopher Keenan, Fr. Benedict Taylor, and the late Father Mike. (www.tloafund.org, www.createinc.org)

FIVER Children’s Foundation

Thomas Tucker, former head of Global Fixed Income Sales at Lehman Brothers, was searching for deeper meaning in his life. Fulfilling a life-long wish to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children, Tucker quit Wall Street and created the Fiver Children’s Foundation in 2000. Fiver supports “economically impoverished” children personally and academically for ten years through their year round program. At risk children with academic potential enter Fiver’s program at age eight and continue in the program through high school graduation. The children attend a summer camp program in upstate New York with emphasis on character and self esteem development and then continue to be academically supported throughout the year. The Foundation is supported by current and former Lehman Brothers directors, investment bankers, and hedge fund managers. (www.fiver.org)

ROBIN HOOD Foundation

The Robin Hood Foundation aims to resolve poverty in New York City by attacking “root causes” and creating programs for early prevention of cyclical poverty. The Foundation supports inner city children and families who suffer the harsh realities of poverty through a variety of innovative initiatives. According to Andy Serwer of Fortune Magazine, “Robin Hood was a pioneer in what is now called venture philanthropy, or charity that embraces free-market forces. An early practitioner of using metrics to measure the effectiveness of grants, it is a place where strategies to alleviate urban poverty are hotly debated, ineffectual plans are coldly discarded, and its staff of 66 hatches radical new ideas.” The Foundation was founded by hedge fund maverick Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Management with Glenn Dubin, founder of Highbridge Capital, a global hedge fund with seven billion dollars under management. Jones and Dubin recruited some Wall Street heavyweights to underwrite Robin Hood programs including current and former board members, Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein and Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld. Some of Robin Hood’s programs include support for HIV/Aids victims, homeless shelters, abused women shelters, food banks, and charter schools in impoverished neighborhoods. The board members underwrite all operating costs out of their own pockets. Thus 100% of donations go directly to support projects. It proves greed is not always “good” on Wall Street. Sometimes compassion and shared wealth make the best trade. (www.robinhood.org)

HEDGE FUNDS WHO CARE?

According to its website, “Hedge Funds Care (HFC) is proud to be the only business group solely devoted to combating child abuse, and in nine years has made a powerful contribution to saving children.” Rob Davis, formerly of Montgomery Prime Brokerage/Bank of America Securities Oppenheimer Institutional Equity sales and current partner of Merlin Securities, founded HFC in 1998. That was the same year as the hedge fund debacle of Long Term Capital managed by John Meriwether brought down the global capital markets. In response to the event, Davis felt it was time for hedge funds to give back. Hedge Funds Care has created an “alliance of hedge fund industry professionals dedicated to protecting children from abuse and neglect.” The Fund supports non-profit organizations that provide child abuse counseling and prevention services. Those most fortunate helping those most vulnerable reveals that some hedge fund managers do indeed care. (www.hedgefundscare.org)

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