Britain’s conservative-party head David Cameron didn’t win any thanks from his own party for a speech yesterday in which he called the division between public-sector and private-sector pension plans in Britain “apartheid” and said that he wants Britain “to move increasingly towards defined contribution rather than final salary” — defined-benefit — “schemes.” (more…)

Swiss banking giant UBS has announced a new system for awarding bonuses to executives and board members. Although the system does not apply to traders and mid-level bankers, it’s still a useful document. The future iteration of Wall Street is going to rethink its entire bonus structure, including for traders and bankers. The rough blueprint UBS provides, if it and other banks apply something like it more broadly to other employees in the future, could have fiscal implications for New York. (more…)

Yesterday was another watershed day for New York and for American financial capitalism. (more…)

From Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s new report on the financial meltdown’s economic impact on New York, there’s this chart comparing the drop in Wall Street jobs during the “current downturn” (dated back to the summer of 2007) to losses following the crash of 1987 and the “Dot-Com and 9/11″ decline beginning in 2001:

So far, the trend is closely following the 1987 track, during which securities industry employment took four years to hit bottom.   But this chart, and others like it, may actually understate the problem. (more…)

The Post was kind enough to run my article on the MTA today, in which I detail how the state-controlled public authority that runs the metro region’s buses and subways got itself into the pickle it’s in today, as well as suggestions for a way out.

One additional thing is important to note: when the patient (New York City) is sick, it’s not a good idea to cut off the circulation (the subways). It’s quite possible that the cuts the MTA proposes would cost New York City’s economy more in productivity than they’ll save the authority.

Devastated by the specter of Albany’s slash-and-burn budget tactics, New York’s health sector struggles for survival in a recession-wracked world.   As today’s Times reports:

A major hospital trade association, one of New York City’s most aggressive developers and a financier with a personal interest in health care are teaming up in hopes of building a 60-story glass-and-steel tower on the West Side of Manhattan that would function as an international showcase and permanent conference center for the hospital industry.

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The consumer price index fell 1 percent month on month in October, according to Labor. Falling consumer prices, if they continue, worsen New York’s fiscal position. (more…)

How’s New York’s economy doing?

Private trash collectors (who pick up from stores and the like) are reportedly seeing an “unprecedented” loss in business over the past quarter, as customers have not only closed their doors but closed up so suddenly that they often still owe vendors (including the trash collector) money. (more…)

Goldman Sachs surprised hardly anyone when it announced that its top seven execs would take no bonuses this year. UBS followed suit a day later. But top executives aren’t the real bonus worry. (more…)

The redoubtable Larry Littlefield has boiled down the latest U.S. census data on local government employment into a handy spreadsheet with a regional breakdown showing the extent to which New York exceeds national averages in this category.  His Room 8 post on the issue is here, and the spreadsheet is here.  Based on his summary calculations, I generated this summary chart:

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