Look who wants protection from foreign rivals now [View All]

[EV_Ares]

When Main Street jobs go overseas, Wall Street generally shrugs. The typical response from the nation's financial elite is that people who have lost work should tough it out and acquire new skills.

Now the tables may be turning, as Wall Street ponders its own potential job losses. Foreign companies are increasingly bypassing New York and listing their shares on overseas markets. If the trend continues, it could mean the migration of high-paying investment banking jobs.

The horror! Faced with this threat, Wall Street and its political supporters have sprung into action, commissioning studies and urging that the government help by easing post-Enron accounting regulations, adopting lawsuit reform and pre-empting state banking regulations.

Regulation and litigation are, to be sure, legitimate issues, ones that go well beyond Wall Street. But they are not why companies are listing on foreign exchanges. That is happening for the same reason that other industries have gone overseas - global competition.

New York has long been the world's financial center. Now bankers in other countries are mastering financial skills - much as others in past decades figured out how to produce textiles, cars and appliances - and are competing at prices that undercut New York. According to a study by the London Stock Exchange, for instance, New York firms' underwriting fees for initial public offerings of stock are about twice those charged throughout Europe.

Before Wall Street gets any relief from Washington, it should consider lowering its fees and expectations of exorbitant profits and bonuses. According to the New York comptroller's office, the average Wall Street bonus was a record-smashing $137,580 last year, hardly a sign of an industry in distress.


More at link:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070213/cm_usatoday/lookwhowantsprotectionfromforeignrivalsnow;_ylt=Auu8BXVaitrpdHGqGw8Ew3fMWM0F

---------------------------------------
EDIT: COPYRIGHT. PLEASE POST ONLY 4 OR 5
PARAGRAPHS FROM THE COPYRIGHTED NEWS SOURCE
PER DU RULES.