By , ,
Published May 21, 2015
You know times are tough when brokerage guys can't order out like they used to.
Did you hear about this? All the major money center banks (search) are now apparently acting like anything but money-making machines.
No more five-star hotels for traveling muckety-mucks.
No more $300 bottles of wine.
No more season tickets to the philharmonic... company-paid. You want to listen to sweet music, pull out your own sweet dough!
Yet I had to laugh about this new belt tightening. According to the Wall Street Journal, one brokerage house put a limit of no more than $150 per person at fancy restaurants. In New York, save maybe lettuce, you can still get by on that. That'll teach them.
Still, another says you can get a free meal if you stay late at the firm, but the limit is $25 now, not thirty-five. Even in New York, I can get a good pastrami sandwich for a whole lot less than either.
And this, my friends, is Wall Street's idea of cost cutting.
News flash, Wall Street: There are plenty of people in this country "not" entertaining clients at five-star restaurants in this country who don't think a Fairmont hotel is roughing it, or a meal without foie gras is verboten.
There are plenty who would die to have their company pick up their dinner tab for staying late. Most are putting in long hours just to stay employed.
But no, you in your pampered, self-indulgent world have the nerve to bitch when the boss takes the Dom Perignon away. Or complain when you have to fly commercial instead of hopping on the private jet. I know first class takes some getting used to, but the service ain't awful.
So get your head out of your tasseled menu, or whatever other dark place it's been residing and look at the real world.
You want our tears? Start living our lives, where we get our own sandwiches and we pay for them too.
Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Cavuto.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/time-to-tighten-the-belt