Bear markets, bad timing

When the news broke several weeks ago that Bear Stearns was a sinking ship, well, there were some capitalists who wanted to create new opportunities for themselves.  For instance, one or two tacky New York real estate brokers decided to hang outside the building to network with people to sell their apartments and move out of Gotham.  For a company that held itself high in employee morale and loyalty, as it turns out some people who suffered from their misfortunes hadn’t even joined yet.

As for the backstory? Jobseekers at the college level. As companies go under, what happens to the college students who accepted job offers only to find themselves downsized before their actual job began? Such is a story in yesterday’s NY Times. Apparently the company, a robus employer on the undergraduate level, hired about 300 students for full-time jobs along with 300 summer interns.  When the 85 year-old company agreed to be acquired by JP Morgan, well, their fate was sealed in terms of which  side of the house they were going to join.  As for the equity division as in banking and fixed-income? Buh-bye.  Regarding energy, prime brokerage and merchant banking, well they’ll work for JP Morgan, the article says. 

Will impacted students become jobseekers once again and land on their feet? At some point soon for these bright college grads, the answer is yes. It is an unfortunate state of circumstances, not to mention the economy, that they’re experiencing being downsized and the turmoil prior to even stepping foot into the working world.

 

 

 

You Gotta Have Wa

I’m going to switch things up a bit, start a new blogger dance if you will. We know there’s a recession right now in America. Check that, a huge recession. We’ve read the headlines about Bear Stearns, we know the real estate market is in the tank. So we do what smart citizens would do: we divert the attention to lighter fare.

Welcome back, baseball! Known as America’s pastime, not quite sure why soccer (a.k.a. “football”) never really took off here, our vice is just this: baseball. American pie. Hot dogs. As I entered the colossal Yankee Stadium tonight I couldn’t help but reflect on a book I previously read, You Gotta Have Wa. 

Sports are like an anthropological study, a business analogy if you will.  For instance, in Japan the game of baseball is played somewhat differently than on this side of the globe. In Japan it’s fine to end a game in a tie; after all, you don’t want to disgrace the other team. If you hit a home run and scurry around the bases, well you don’t exactly want to look too happy. That would – you guessed it – disgrace the opposing pitcher. Yet here in America we have no problem taking the credit, taking that curtain call out of the dugout when fans beckon the player to take a bow.

We play on a team just like in business but the message is this: it’s okay to shine.  We also incorporate baseball terms in business; it’s not uncommon to “touch base” in order to communicate or “hit the ball out of a park” with a stellar proposal. It’s ingrained in our culture, it’s a part of our lives, it intertwines with our business, our culture, our being. So on the evening of a monumental Opening Day in the Bronx: play ball!