Why does it serve them right? The people who are actually responsible for the decisions in subprime get to keep their jobs. The executives keep their jobs and bonuses (which may decrease, but still) The people getting laid off often have NOTHING to do with the mortgage business. The underlings who just take orders will be cut, operations, administrative, support roles, etc. Less college grads will be hired and some will be fired.
Thanks for setting this fool straight, some cuts came out of Equities and Fixed Income Technology groups you know the brilliant financial engineers who build the trading platforms for the shady bond/fixed income traders. Such a pitty I'm glad I got out when I did.
It is an excellent move. Every company has accumulated a lot of deadwood - barely functional departments, incompetent employees, etc. I am sure they are first on the list. They should probably cut 10%
Wall Street Financial firms have been perpetually cutting since 2001. Obviously you are not aware just how poor operations are there. Besides the offshoring, the backbones of these firms have been hurting even prior to these cuts. Most of these cuts are not based on the factor of who needs to be cut for legitimate reasons but who is the easiest & cheapest to get rid off. Mark my words, those who made the real decisions that caused the pain in this mortgage fiasco will keep their jobs. Most of the people let go have nothing to do with the mess, they are just the underlings used as fodder.
They have not been cutting since 2001, absolutely not. They cut alot in the 2001/2002 time period, and then have been hiring ever since. Look it up. The staff levels until very recently were almost as high as they were in 2000/2001.
lehman is very conservative and has one of the most experienced and respected management teams on wall street, led by dick fuld who built the company from the ground up back when it was just a bond shop takeover target after the american express merger fiasco.