Merrill Lynch Has Frozen Hiring Until Year-End

Yes, all hail steve - supreme genius of nyc real estate for having called the financial crisis 2 years before it happened. And of course capitalizing on his foresight by furiously slamming out streeteasy posts on the matter 16 hours a day.

It is so wonderful to open up the streeteasy every few days and see the same old steve posts. adding lots of value.

They claimed that Wall Street bonuses were propping up the market, now they deny they will cause its demise.

Just pointing out the hypocrisy.

Who is "they"? Only time will tell the true effects and where the market will go, why not just let those things play out?

That's too bad, I was actually waiting to hear back from ML about a job for which I was interviewing.

This is a silly post. The investment banks routinely do this in the second half of the year. I recall the same thing happened at half of the firms in 2006

"This is a silly post."

See what I mean?

Thanks for pointing out the economy is not in great shape, stevejhx. Were it not for you posting links to articles we can all see, nobody would have any idea what is going on out there. That is very helpful...

I do find it sad that you seem to take such pleasure in people losing their jobs and losing money on real estate.

"I do find it sad that you seem to take such pleasure in people losing their jobs and losing money on real estate."

Thank you, starfish. Here are some questions for you:

1) Do you find it sad that these banks are now being forced to buy back auction-rate securities that they defrauded their customers on, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines?

2) Do you find it sad that people are losing their life savings because they were pushed into mortgages that they didn't understand and could never pay off?

3) Do you find it sad that securities backed by subprime and Alt-A mortgages were rated Triple-A, causing innocent investors to lose their shirts?

4) Do you find it sad that this latest Wall Street ponzi scheme was one of the largest trickle-up economic programs that has ever been designed, with Wall Street bankers paying themselves obscene bonuses by defrauding hundreds of thousands of individuals and institutions?

5) Do you find it sad that because of these obscene excesses of liquidity and downright fraud millions of people were priced out of the housing market?

6) Do you find it sad that millions of people will lose most of their life savings because of the hype from the NAR. From 2005:

"Why NAR's David Lereah Believes The Housing Boom Is Far From Over.

"Housing is going strong at least through the end of the decade, predicts David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, and his infectious enthusiasm is as strong as his theory."

You seem to be on the side of the wealthy thieves rather than the true victims of this scheme.

Feel free to answer whenever you get a moment.

No, we simply find you sad.

um.. i actually dont find it sad steve. for such a huge proponent of the virtues of purchasor's due diligence.. im surprised that you, of all people, would characterize people who entered into loans they knew that could not afford, as victims. the blame is overwhelmingly, and unfairly tilted towards wall st, imo.

Thanks malraux.

Stevehjx, you seem to take pleasure in any negative news about the economy - plain and simple. You are just a negative person who takes seems to applaude news of layoffs. Typing out 6 "questions" for me will not change that - it only adds to your reputation as a person who thinks more words wins an argument. I think it sucks that people are losing their jobs and their houses regardless of what caused it.

"people who entered into loans they knew that could not afford, as victims"

Did you ever meet someone with a subprime loan? Lots of them can't even read.

"just a negative person"

I think falling housing prices is positive.

"who takes seems to applaude news of layoffs."

Who said that? What I said that there were excesses, and fraud, and now the market is righting itself, as it should. Propping up prices at artificially high levels seems to me to be socialist interventionism.

I didn't think you could answer my questions.

A lot of renters are insecure that they don't own their homes, so they seek out and revel in any bad news they can find in hopes that they can feel better about their situations.

"A lot of renters are insecure that they don't own their homes"

A lot of owners are insecure that they're going to lose their shirts.

"Did you ever meet someone with a subprime loan? Lots of them can't even read."

are you kidding me? have YOU ever met anyone with a subprime loan? how many illiterate subprime borrowers are there in chelsea? can you qualify "lots", or are you going to give me a one-off link?

"A lot of owners are insecure that they're going to lose their shirts."

Where did you get this one from steve? I know lots, and lots, of people who own their homes. None that I know are worried that they are going to lose their shirts.

"A lot of renters are insecure that they don't own their homes"

Where did you get this one from LICC? I know lots, and lots, of people who rent their homes. None that I know are insecure that they don't own their homes.

"how many illiterate subprime borrowers are there in chelsea?"

Need I know only people in Chelsea, or might I have subprime relatives?

That's weird steve, I know lots of renters that would like to own. You don't know any? You don't know anyone that rents that would like to own their own place?

"You don't know any? You don't know anyone that rents that would like to own their own place?"

Not at these prices. Not one. Why pay twice as much for half the apartment?

Only a fool would do that.

I do know of someone who lives in Long Island City, however, who would prefer to live in Manhattan.

"Did you ever meet someone with a subprime loan? Lots of them can't even read."

I've met some of these people in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens. My impression after speaking with them is that the low range of NYC condos ($300K - $500K) is chock full of Alt-A loans. No documented income. No down payment. People using HELOCs to lower the monthlies. Really crazy stuff. I even know a few people who got into Coops with this type of financing. The majority of these people appear to have bought between 2003-2006.

"A lot of renters are insecure that they don't own their homes"

A lot of owners are insecure that they "own" their homes but are renting the money to pay from the bank... in a crumbling market...

"The investment banks routinely do this in the second half of the year. "

We kidding with this? Routine second half hiring freezes? Uh, the majority of hires are traditionally second half. We've now gone beyond sheer lame rationalization into complete nonsense.

LIC, I know several owners (a couple who just bought in teh last year) who are wishing they didnt. I mean - who wouldnt be upset knowing they lost a hundred grand of value?

You must not have many friends steve, or at least any friends that are renters. Your "pay twice as much" statement has also been shown to be foolishly incorrect, many times.

"You must not have many friends steve, or at least any friends that are renters."

Bad assumption.

"Your "pay twice as much" statement has also been shown to be foolishly incorrect, many times."

No - many, many, many times proved correct. Unless you do it your (impossible) way by using 12x annual rent + the "tax benefit," which is not calculated in that ratio and is nonexistent, anyway, since someone who earns 40x monthly rent can't afford 24x annual rent as a purchase price, because they don't qualify for financing using PITI standards.

Other than that, you're right on the moolah.

sad, sad, sad.....

I'm still laughing at this one...
"The investment banks routinely do this in the second half of the year."

WOW, have the rationalizations gone crazy.

malraux - don't you owe us an apology about your statement that the Case-Shiller Index said "Prime Manhattan" was hunky-dory?

sad, sad, sad that you can't....

"WOW, have the rationalizations gone crazy."

Spoken by the king of spin himself. steve is the queen.

"steve is the queen."

JuiceMan, must you a) resort to nastiness just because you have lost the real estate argument, and b) I didn't make that comment.

Regarding a), let us refer to your "Rule of 300": 300x monthly rent being the proper price to pay for an apartment, but you mortgage interest and transactions costs.

That was the funnies thing I think you've posted, since, "A member of the Obama election campaign."

"but you EXCLUDE mortgage interest and transactions costs."

And might I add you still take the mortgage interest tax deduction, while excluding the interest costs itself.

steve, the quenn comment wasn't meant to be nasty. You refer to yourself as a queen all the time and it was meant as a joke. If it offended you I apologize.

Wasn't my rule of 300x, I posted it because it was a stupid piece from a Fed economist. Just as stupid as your paper that you constantly defend BECAUSE it was written by a Fed guy. If you believe everything written by a fed guy, than why do you dismiss the rule of 300x? Your defense to my challenge of your fed paper is a double standard. Which one is it Mr. Consistent?

StreetEasy should ban all new bull/bear threads which are a complete waste of time. Instead we should be discussing the merits of avocado-colored appliances:

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/4673-what-trendy-design-decisions-will-look-dated-first

> Spoken by the king of spin himself.

When me debunking claims that Wall Street does not normally hire second half of the year (when, in actuality, its when they do MOST of their hiring) is called "spin", then know something is backward in the wordl.

But, if this is the sort of "logic" that let people buy top of market and then brag about their "investment", then at least there is consistency is the absurdity.

sorry... "consistency IN the absurdity."

So I was in discussions with CS and Lehman in July 2006, and they instituted hiring freezes across the board. CS came from Switzerland but Leh was of course local. So I don't think this is anything new. And in any case they were pretty clear that they do most of their hiring in the first 2 quarters.

Anyway, lets not have facts get in the way of a good story, but a few things otherwise apply to the ML situation right now:
1 - they will make exceptions through the firm's management committee
2 - this hiring freeze doesn't apply to brokers.
3 - they just made an $80 million hire in sales and trading
4 - they are pretty much stating they'll be back in the market (other than brokerage where they are in the market now) in January

Thanks

ps - EddieWilson, the firms do not do most of their hiring in the 2nd half of the year. That just doens't make sense. This isn't spin on real estate or wall street or anything, this is not an argument against anyone here, it is simply just true.

Thanks

Merrill has has hiring freezes over the years. They did in 2002/3 during and after the Spitzer investigation. It didn't cause the real estate market to fall apart any of those times. These freezes didn't include brokers. They will always recruit brokers if they can bring in money.

Does this type of thing really excite you Steve & Eddie? You'd probably be a happier person if you weren't so negative all the time.

> the firms do not do most of their hiring in the 2nd half of the year.

The majority of hires are analysts and associates. The majority of those start in September.

Last I checked, September was in the 2nd half of the year.

> They did in 2002/3 during and after the Spitzer investigation. It didn't cause
> the real estate market to fall apart any of those times

Wall Street hadn't laid off 100k in that period... and we weren't in anywhere near the financial crisis we are in now.

> Does this type of thing really excite you Steve & Eddie?

Who said excite? You were shown an article. Seems like all the "excitement" is coming from the rationalizers...

Eddie, have you ever worked for an investment bank?

Sure they hire analysts and associates.

Those analysts and associates start in the August timeframe.

And they are hired the prior November/December in the school recruiting cycle.

Nice try though.

Hmm, another person who thinks Eddie Wilson doesn't know what he is talking about. Interesting . . .

Steve, did you tell your subprime relatives that falling home prices are a "positive" thing? Whenever you have a moment, please drop them an e-mail and explain it to them. They won't feel as bad.

While you are at it, caution them that buying in FiDi is a losing proposition. It's 90% overpriced. I have proven it.

"You refer to yourself as a queen all the time"

No, actually, I don't, and even if I did it wouldn't make it appropriate for you to do so.

"I posted it because it was a stupid piece from a Fed economist"

No it wasn't. It was a piece posted on a blog by someone who used to work for the Fed. Quite a difference from a Fed economist doing an official paper.

Still waiting for malraux's apology...

...and for LICC to post something useful.

"Steve, did you tell your subprime relatives that falling home prices are a "positive" thing?"

You still have some 6 questions to answer, BGaria. What I would tell subprime people is that primary residences should be protected by bankruptcy laws, as they are in Florida. That would even the playing field.

sad, sad, sad...

Still waiting for malraux's apology...

still waiting for you to put your money where your mouth is...

"still waiting for you to put your money where your mouth is..."

Weasel-boy, I already agreed to somebody's "charity bet," but I never heard anything else about it.

So I did.

Where's your apology?

m i c...

k e y...

m o u s e !

> Eddie, have you ever worked for an investment bank?

Yes.

And hiring freezes are *not* part of normal business, unless you consider normal business any time they're going "oh shit".

Nice try for a rationaliation though.

from LICC
> Hmm, another person who thinks Eddie Wilson doesn't know what he is talking about. Interesting . . .

Wouldn't be a streeteasy thread without a post from our resident idiot, though.

Wow, thats 300 posts in a row from LICC without a fact or a brain. And the dude is still following me around! Apparently his goal in life is to be a pimple on my ass.

Dude, seriously, get laid or something. Or work on selling that condo of yours. All your posting here isn't going to turn back the clock..

so you have worked for an investment bank but you don't know how analyst and associate hiring works?

Actually, steve, I think you are wrong on this

"You refer to yourself as a queen all the time"

No, actually, I don't, and even if I did it wouldn't make it appropriate for you to do so.

you do refer to yourself as a queen. And it would be appropriate for someone to refer to you as such, or many any reference to anything you've said publicly here.

whether it be your career and rate per word, prior employers, education, heritage, address, age, physical characteristics you've told us about, phobias, and on and on. you've opened the door

No, I seem to be the only one who understands the point heree...

If you want to call "hiring" the start day (when your salary begins, and offers can be resinded), thats September, and thats second half of the year. (I'm in this camp)

If you want to talk about offer time for "hiring", yes, for the full timers, November/December. You're in that camp, fine. I don't agree, but, hell, it doesn't really matter. Because...

Last time I checked, both were second half of the year.

Making this ratioanlation about hiring freezes second of the year being "routine" a bunch of absolute nonsese.

hoagain, I agree that people shouldn't call themselves things in public that they don't want the public to call them. That, to me, is baiting. BUT, unless I've missed it, Steve has called himself a "drama queen" many times, not a "queen," which is very different. That said, I could see someone missing the distinction, and JuiceMan apologized, so hopefully we can bury this and move on.

> JuiceMan, must you a) resort to nastiness just because you have lost the real estate argument, and
> b) I didn't make that comment.

Bingo... when the bulls have been proven wrong, all they seem to do is try and come up with personal attacks on those who proved them wrong (and called it right months ago).

When thats all you have left...

Yes, if we disagree with Eddie, we are "the bulls" who have "been proven wrong".

ML is not having a freeze on the analysts who are starting now (and it is not after labor day that they start, they have already started), nor are they having a hiring freeze on analysts and associates in Nov/Dec for next summer. They are also not having a hiring freeze on brokers. They are also allowing exceptions to the hiring freeze. They also just hired someone with an $80 million package.

If this difficult to understand? Or am I a "bull" who has "been proven wrong" and therefore by disagreement with EddieWilson I am a bad person?

And tenemental, drama queen, queen, I have no idea the difference. Either way, Steve doesn't want to be offended by ad hominem attacks, then he should stick to the facts and his directly relevant personals (e.g. he's a renter in NYC and an owner in LIC, he's a lifetime NYer except a stint in Miami) not the irrelevant personals like the famous post on how he doesn't get enough dick or he dates 25 year olds - half his age.

Wow, another post that shows how Eddie Wilson talks crap and plays loose with the facts. Interesting . . .

> If this difficult to understand?

No, except you wrote about everything except the original point.. .that there is a HIRING FREEZE. Did you get that part? You can dance around it all you want, say its all normal and good, but that is a bad, bad rationalization to make in this market. What part of that is hard to understand?

We've heard some lousy rationalizations, but calling hiring freezes par for the course, thats almost as bad as LIC's logic.

But good to see that *that* pimple on my ass is still here.

Next someone is going to say "hiring freezes are great for Manhattan real estate because it keeps all those HR folks employed".

> They claimed that Wall Street bonuses were propping up the market, now they deny they will cause
> its demise.
> Just pointing out the hypocrisy.

The only folks who need it pointed out are those who are spinning it in the first place...meaning, they're going to ignore it anyway.

Everybody actually paying attention, I think got the point months ago.

Hiring freeze, except that most hiring for 2008 has been done, except that it excludes brokers a huge portion of ML's workforce, a hiring freeze except that they will grant exceptions through the management committee, a hiring freeze except routine annual hiring of analysts and associates, a hiring freeze except that they JUST hired someone with an $80 million package, a hiring freeze except that it will only go for 3.5 months and then be off.

Pretty serious stuff, sis.

who is going to say this: EddieWilson
about 1 hour ago
ignore this person
report abuse Next someone is going to say "hiring freezes are great for Manhattan real estate because it keeps all those HR folks employed".

except that you seem to like to project ridiculous positions on other people even though they've never made them. Then you can be indignant as if they actually did make them.

Do you beat your wife too and blame her for being beaten up?

has anyone figured out that EddieWilson and Stevejhx are the identical person?

Same positions
Same style of posting a negative article as worthy of its own discussion topic
Same argument style
Same style of rebuttal, interspersing the original quote and his response
Same claim to have worked at an investment bank, but seemingly not in the investment banking group itself
Same language style and pedantry related to language
Same self-corrections of their own posting
Same level of anger
Same reference to "they" and "them" as out to get people who don't think real estate is going up
Same argument with LICComment

what else is the same ... anyone care to point it out?

> Hiring freeze, except that most hiring for 2008 has been done

And they've been nowhere near layoffs, and there are more layoffs to come.

> except that they JUST hired someone

Wow, they got that one hire in. Then the crisis is over. THAT DUDE WILL BUY UP ALL OF MANHATTAN AND PRICES WILL DOUBLE!

Glad we settled that...

;-)

> Do you beat your wife too and blame her for being beaten up?

Dude, what is wrong with you?

Seriously...

Eddie - the person only said that ML is hiring still and just made a big $80 million hire. The person didn't say that prices will double. They are separate things. Just because you are wrong on one end doesn't make the person right or wrong on the other end as there was no opinion stated at all on prices doubling or not.

You missed the point. The person in question claimed this is "nothing new" and that its "pretty clear that they do most of their hiring in the first 2 quarters". The latter was even contradicted by his own "logic".

That was what was responded to. And it was bs. Sounds like the guy got negged for a job and he bought the line.

On top of this, this guy is now asking me if I beat my wife. Even for you, surprising that you are defending him.

You are pretty good at jumping to conclusions ... got negged for a job? The guy didn't even say he worked there now, applied there, or anything to that end at all. Maybe your conclusion isn't that far off from him and his wife beating comment on you?

by the way, lol, I guess he's one who doesn't believe you are Stevejhx because everyone here would know that Stevejhx doesn't have a wife.

> You are pretty good at jumping to conclusions ... got negged for a job? The guy didn't even say he
> worked there now, applied there, or anything to that end at all.

Jump? Huh? Its what he said... "So I was in discussions with CS and Lehman in July 2006, and they instituted hiring freezes across the board."

Sounds pretty clear to me that he was in discussions to be hired, and then he was supposedly told there was a hiring freeze. Or do you think he meant he was in discussions with CS to buy the place?

> Maybe your conclusion isn't that far off from him and his wife beating comment on you?

Uh, no, sorry, it takes a really sick person to compute me talking about the job neg that HE MENTIONED with saying someone beat their wife. (not to mention calling Steve a queen)

I'm not quite sure why you are defending this guy...

hehe Eddie, you gave yourself away, defensing "steve" from being a Queen.

I'm not more defending him or you, but you did jump to conclusions about this guy, same as he did about you. Neither of you are better than the other.

And your point of him applying in 2006, well that was 2006, and now you are talking about today, 2008 as you attack the guy and support your point about a decline in NYC real estate (a bit of a stretch, can't you admit that at least just to maybe show you are the more mature of the two of you?)

Eddie is just steve's little lap dog on this board. They are not the same person.

> I'm not more defending him or you, but you did jump to conclusions about this guy, same as he did
> about you.

One more time, slowly... I "concluded" that what he said was the case. Maybe I read it wrong, I believe that was literally what he said. Separately, he "concluded" that it was ok to suggest that someone beats their wife. Only a sick person could consider that the same thing.

> Neither of you are better than the other.

Only in the land of retards.

> Eddie is just steve's little lap dog on this board. They are not the same person.

LIC is apparently obsessed with both of us, though. As if that will stop prices in LIC from dropping...

how did you come to this absurd conclusion Eddie: LIC is apparently obsessed with both of us, though. As if that will stop prices in LIC from dropping...

you seriously believe that LIC believes that his obsession with you will stop prices from dropping?

hmm, only in the land of retards does that make sense.

I'd put in a sarcastic remark right here, but, well, you just showed pretty clearly that it would go way over your head.

Stick to insulting the other 3rd graders...

ritchi, Eddie, we are going to have to separate the two of you kids

(that's not dco, btw, he'll crush you...)

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/4702-largest-collapses-of-a-new-york-city-residential-development

Great, one guy calling the other retard..maybe we should grow up a tiny bit
Let's stick to data and maybe read what unbiased economists have to say
Anybody knows Nuriel Roubini?

ritchi- Your obsessive use of the word "retard" is very disturbing. It exemplifies your inability, to communicate with adults. It also shows very little imagination, and inability to control your anger.

Remember that people like myself and Eddie, are not the cause, of your problems. If bought at the height of the market, you should own you own actions. Trying to place the blame on others, is an adolescent defence, and exhibits your frustration about a past decision, that has clearly shown to be a very large mistake. I suggest you seek immediate help and I will say a pray for your speedy recovery.