Wall St 'wags' share woes with world

Published on Wednesday 28 January 2009 20:55

THEY are the widows of Wall Street, who found romance bloomed as share prices soared. Come the crash, however, their love lives became as erratic and doom-laden as the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Now, a cabal of young, aspirant women have formed a self-help group to mourn the demise of their relationships with America's banking elite.

Recoiling from an abrupt downshift in lifestyle, they meet to share common tales of woe, mainly involving cancelled platinum credit cards and expense accounts that no longer find favour at New York's premier restaurants and hotels.

The group, Dating a Banker Anonymous (DABA), has attracted dozens of members who found their relationships with derivatives traders or wealth managers could no longer take the strain of the ongoing economic crisis.

Some of their partners, known as FBFs – Financial-guy Boyfriends – were made redundant; others simply drank themselves into a stupor as their world of numbers and risk fell around them.

Worse offenders simply refused to countenance the idea of a holiday, or committed the cardinal sin of refusing to go out for dinner at Manhattan's most exclusive sushi restaurant.

Since the DABA website was launched in November, encouraging women to join, the founders claim they have been contacted by current wives, girlfriends, and increasingly, exes of partners who work in the finance sector, eager to articulate their grief via blogs.

More often than not, however, any sentiment is betrayed by complaints regarding the high expectations and expensive tastes to which they have become accustomed.

The latest post, for instance, sees one "DABA girl" bemoan how she and her boyfriend no longer holiday in the Hamptons, or go to the ballet. With her partner having been made redundant, she is wary of the future holds.

"Overnight, he went from unavailable to downright clingy. He wants to have dinner every night," she writes. "By dinner I mean staying in and cooking. Chopping vegetables alongside your man in a hot New York-sized kitchen is nothing like the sexy kitchen scene between Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in Nine and a Half Weeks. Seriously. It sucks."

She adds: "I'm only with my BF because I just don't have the heart to change my Facebook status from 'In a relationship' to 'I ain't saying I'm a gold digger, but I ain't messin' with no broke banker'."

Megan Petrus, a 27-year-old lawyer who found her banker ex-boyfriend proved more concerned about helping a laid-off colleague instead of comforting her in the wake of her father's heart attack, launched DABA along with Laney Cromwell, also 27, a fashion writer.

"We put two and two together and figured out that it was the economy, not us," Ms Petrus said. "When guys in banking are going through this, they can't handle a relationship."

Nonetheless, Ms Petrus rebuffed the idea that she and her fellow DABA members were attracted to financiers for purely materialistic reasons.

"It's not even about a $200 dinner," she insisted. "It's that he's an alpha male, he's a go-getter, he's confident, people respect him, and that creates the whole mystique of who he is."

BACKGROUND

THE bankers and fund managers of New York may be facing difficult times, but they are still considered a good catch by the city's womenfolk.

A company is continuing to pair off glamorous singletons from the world of fashion with the denizens of Wall Street.

The initiative, Fashion Meets Finance, was launched two years ago, and brazenly made clear that "women in fashion need men who can facilitate their pre-30 marriage/retirement plan", and "men in finance need women who will allow them to leverage their career in the dating equity".

Last week, the firm held one of its regular meets at the elegant Empire Hotel in New York, with hundreds of people attending.

Billionaire 'knew the crunch was coming'

TIMES are tough, but George Soros is still making money.

The billionaire financier and philanthropist claimed yesterday that while the collapse of the international banking system took him – and scores more – by surprise, he had a feeling trouble was brewing.

Mr Soros added that he took steps to safeguard his fortune, which last year was estimated to be $9 billion.

"I would say I was able to protect my capital, and get a rate of return that is satisfactory in normal times," he said on the first full day at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.

"I think, in the current environment, to be simply in positive territory is itself an accomplishment."

The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, told the forum that the global financial meltdown has had a "big impact" on his country, adding that growth would slow this year. In a speech to business leaders, politicians and experts, Mr Wen said the crisis was posing challenges including "rising unemployment in urban areas".

Mr Wen said the robustness of China's economy, which grew 9 per cent last year, could help restore confidence in global markets and stem the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said people were "depressed and traumatised", adding that "$50 trillion of personal wealth" had vanished worldwide since the crisis worsened with the collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers.

"The size of the problem confronting us today is larger than in the 1930s," he said.