Go West (or East), young broker

Go West (or East), young broker

Scripps Howard News Service: Dispatches out of Manhattan report a growing exodus of desperate bankers, brokers and investment advisers abandoning Wall Street for financial outposts in Florida, Chicago, Milwaukee and Richmond.

In the Associated Press’ words these refugees from the financial meltdown “are scrambling to relocate their families, possessions and rarefied talent.” It calls up images of the Okie Joad family bravely crossing the George Washington Bridge into the unknown with a mattress and a washtub tied to the roof of the Mercedes S600.

Big numbers

And this could be no small Diaspora. New York’s financial sector could lose as many as 40,000 jobs by the end of the year. That’s a lot of campfires on the plains of Middle America.

Some of the bolder itinerants investment advisers are seeking work in Asia, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, a region that one reporter described as “oil flush.” But oil opened this week at $63 a barrel — down $83 from its high in July — and seems to be headed to the 40s. The American bankers and brokers may arrive just as the sheikhs are departing to the greener pastures of America.