There's a Main Street in the Roxiticus Valley, Too...

Many of my Roxiticus Desperate Housewives know that I'm not just a blogger and a mom, I'm an investment banker...my husband Rex and I own a small mergers and acquisitions firm in New York City. Whether I'm out and about in the blogosphere, reading someone else's newspaper on the train, or watching TV, I hear investment bankers and the employees of some of the failed banks getting a bad rap. "Why should we bail them out? Look at those bonuses on the books...surely we don't have to pay these frauds?" I don't work for one of those big banks, but I have plenty of friends who do... many of them work for a small division on Main Street, not Wall Street. Believe me, the little people in the card processing group or even the financial managers who help individuals and small businesses to set up their retirement plans had nothing to do with the mortgages or securitized instruments that caused the credit crisis....yet they're watching their stock options or the employee stock in their 401(k) plans tank and wondering if they'll ever see the bonuses they earned earlier in the year.

And before you start playing your tiny violin to mock the "rich people" who won't be able to take a luxury vacation or keep their kids in private school or dine at the finest restaurants, remember the "trickle down" theory... if these "rich people" stop doing all those things, who will pay the salaries of the teachers at the private schools, or the hotel employees at the resorts and spas, or the guy who buses your table at that fancy restaurant? I'm not saying the bailout is right or wrong, I'm just saying that it is bigger than all of us right now.