We are the 99 weeks

A different kind of Dow 10,000 party

It look like Occupy Wall Street is set for an infusion of new blood:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The New York state comptroller expects Wall Street to lose 10,000 jobs by the end of 2012.

The job losses are projected to occur in New York City's securities industry from now through December, 2012, according to Eric Sumberg, press spokesman for state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli...

"These developments will have a rippling effect through the economy and adversely impact state and city tax collections."

Fewer securities brokers plus we get reduced state and local government to boot? Who says the papers are always full of bad news?

While it's not terribly kind to wish for other people to be thrown out of work, it is difficult not to be overjoyed at the approach of anything that might shrink our financial sector as a proportion of our overall economic activity. Yes, banking is valuable, but more is not better. Once you have reached the point where the minimal financial needs of the economy can be handled efficiently, additional employees add no value.  Same with Wall Street: there is very little marginal value added added to our economy by selling little pieces of companies or companies' debt to one another*. The more people we have involved in that after a certain small point, the less we are actually doing. We would all be better off in the long run if half of Wall Street was planting trees for minimum wage and another quarter was building Roman-style bridges out of rough-hewn granite. 

If there was one advantage to FDR's policy of making the Great Depression last as long as possible, it was that we got fewer brokers and more bridges out of the deal. Seems to me that will be the best we can hope from the current government's efforts as well.

* especially with High-Frequency Trading, which helps actual investment just as much as the sales tax helps commerce, and in the same way.