Expand Your Mind: Rich Travails
by Miki Saxon
Today is the first day of the last month of the year and it finds me in a not very business-serious frame of mind. That means the next few Saturdays probably won’t have much in the way of business-redeeming content, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be interesting or just plain fun.
Knowing that my readers share my concern for the downtrodden I thought it would be a nice gesture to check and make sure that the folks who toil in the canyons of Wall Street on the latest efforts to screw up the economy aren’t being mistreated. Nope! Looks like they are doing just fine.
The report showed that total compensation on Wall Street last year rose 4 percent, to more than $60 billion. That was higher than any total except those in 2007 and 2008 — before the financial crisis fully took its toll on pay. The average pay package of securities industry employees in New York State was $362,950, up 16.6 percent over the last two years.
Now that we know their income is safe let’s take a look at how they’re spending it and the difficulties they face starting with housing.
After paying $15.5 million last November for a 3,000-square-foot apartment at the Carlyle, (…) there is the little matter of the $455,352 a year that Mr. Grey, the chairman of Paramount Pictures, will have to cough up in maintenance charges.
But don’t fret for Mr. Grey; he didn’t buy a home he actually bought Art (with a capital a)
“Art is what people are willing to pay for, and an apartment like this is like a piece of art,” the Long Island real estate developer Steven Klar told a colleague of mine at The Times, Alexei Barrionuevo, in late July as he listed his penthouse on West 56th Street for $100 million.
And then there is the yachting crowd’s expenses, of which the boat is the least of it.
“When we’re cruising and burning 100 gallons of fuel an hour, I don’t think it’s costing me $300 an hour,” said Bob Schmetterer, the former chairman and chief executive of Euro RSCG Worldwide, the giant advertising and marketing company, referring to his 80-foot Marlow Explorer. (It holds 3,000 gallons, and he was moored aboard it in Maine when we spoke.)
Finally, there is Vaunte, the ultra-exclusive consignment site for those who want provenance along with fashion.
The site’s founders, Christian Leone and Leah Park, both Gilt Groupe veterans, aim to put a haute spin and a higher-than-usual price on their wares by applying to consignment shopping roughly the same precepts that govern the sale of art and antiques: in short, calling out an item’s provenance to close the deal.
Which brings us to next Saturday and a look at unusual holiday gifts; some of which even the rest of us can afford.
Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho
December 3rd, 2012 at 11:28 pm
[…] Expand Your Mind: Rich Travails […]
December 4th, 2012 at 8:34 am
You know it would take me over 7 years to bring home what an “average” one of them makes?
And I make decent wages for my area. Lots of people here live on part time minimum wage.
The majority of these people have no clue how lucky they are and they don’t work as hard as the people I know either. Makes me sad.
December 5th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
It’s better to be angry; anger is more likely to drive change (if anything can) than sadness.
Do be sure to join me this coming Saturday for a look at what that loot can buy, as well as interesting gifts for the rest of us.