Wall Street Firing Frenzy: Firms Slashing Jobs To Save Themselves

A horrific fourth quarter followed by the worst early January stock-market performance in history is threatening the survival of Wall Street firms and costing thousands of executives their jobs. How bad is it? Check out this info gathered by the Post's John Aidan Byrne:

-  "In all my years in financial services, I have never seen it this bad," one high-powered securities industry lawyer told The Post. "I have owners of small firms calling me up saying their liabilities now exceed their assets, which means by law they are required to close down."

- The lawyer said he had two 50-something Wall Street guys call him this week, who, he said, "had lost hope, crying on the phone." "It is call after call after call like these," he said.

- A trader at the New York Stock Exchange could not name a Wall Street firm that did not cut staff this week. 

- "It is a bloodbath," said the NYSE trader. "Firms are cutting jobs in all the money losing departments, which includes the troubled sub-prime and mortgage areas."

- John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, predicts more layoffs in the financial services sector in the coming weeks unless Wall Street activity picks up soon.

This will do wonders for New York's real estate market. No wonder prescient professor Robert Shiller is convinced that the US-trend-defying New York real-estate prices will soon follow the rest of the country's into the tank.