33-year-old banker leaps to his death from JPMorganâs Hong Kong headquarters, latest in string of apparent suicides http://business.financialpost.com/2014/02/18/jpmorgan-banker-suicide-hong-kong/ So many suicides in so short period of time seem like not random co-accidents. Any clue? Is there something secretly big behind this?
The 4 previous suicides this year occurred on January 26, 27, 28, and 29. That happens to be close to the so-called "Blue Monday", the most depressing day of 2014: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Monday_(date)) My theory is that the suicide rate goes up this time of the year, but we only hear about the "high-profile" suicides, like those in the financial industry.
My best guess is industry layoffs for cost efficiencies. They seem to be older for the most part and the new year brings new quarter earnings to meet for each company. It is a danger time for layoffs. In JPMs case, they have a few payouts to make due to legal "issues" and need to raise cash. Many companies ( like public utilities or rate-based types for example) stock pile employees often at higher than industry wages so that it is easy to reclaim cash streams without going to regulation boards or hearings. The latest earnings management idea appears to be buying one's own shares and "managing volatility" working with market makers and HFT. Another method is having shell companies and on and off balance sheet items. Some have a theory that they are suicides because they are worried about a crash or calamity to come and "know something" that we don't. That seems too concerned with worldwide morality to believed (more likely they would just short heavily) . I wouldn't worry so much about it. When the (human) world ends, I think we will have a much clearer warning and it will not come from a rise in suicides. It is just a tragic fact.
May be those firms are losing big money....the bankers were about to get fired so they jumped to end it all