Monday, September 29, 2008

Manic Money Monday

Today Slate had an interesting article about how high-end prostitutes may be one of the groups to benefit from the economic turmoil. (FYI: did you know that about 40 percent of high-end sex transactions do not involve a sexual service?). The article also pointed out that another obvious group that would benefit from this economy is lawyers.

Funny, because a lot of people around my school do not feel that way, especially those graduating soon and going out into the job market. Even though most of us are very fortunate, it can still be nerve wracking, especially if you have a lot of law school debt.

As we were sitting around the journal office today, someone gasped when they saw that the bailout bill did not pass. Someone joked, "There goes another 500 points in the stock market," to which another person responded "No, it actually went down 600+" Right after that, someone who had been sitting on an office from his summer position went out in the hallway to finally accept. There was no way he was going to let his offer disappear.

I still remember last year how some graduating 3Ls were talking about how a lot of Atlanta banking firms were dissolving and their friends were losing jobs. They speculated that it was only going to get worse for some types of lawyers. While on the whole, it seems like most people will be alright, there is that nervousness that some people have that firms will scale back summer programs, delay new associates, or cut positions all together. Above the Law even has a firm watch to see who's cutting.

It's no wonder that when we opened up registration for our panel on how the law relates to the current economic situation, the event filled up very quickly. I'm interested in what they will say because I am still trying to figure this out. I have discovered that BBC breaks things down nicely (I am like a foreigner when it comes to understanding the US economy) and I downloaded podcasts to learn.

778 point drop in the Dow, the single biggest day drop ever. What a way to start the week. Alas I had all these fun things from the weekend to write about, but my day seemed so consumed by watching the financial situation, it was hard to ignore going back to reality.

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