What If Everyone Got Fired?

AMEX DISAGREES It's going to be a bleak Christmas for rich people—for those actually still employed, Wall Street bonuses will be down 30 to 40% this year, which means high-end real estate market stagnation, a bad holiday season for Bergdorf Men's, a slow end of year for parfumeries and high-end moisturizer companies, more tables open at peak hours at Craft—well, all manner of good news for the upper middle class, who can continue to live in a pleasant fuzz of denial as they aren't completely overspending. After all, 75,000 jobs have disappeared so far, making this the most brutal Wall Street cycle in recent years. (From early 2001 to mid-2003, 60,000 jobs were lost in and around Wall Street.)