Rev. Chuck Davis, who runs the Stanwich Church WOW LOOK AT ALL OF THIS GREENWICH NEWS THAT THE GREENWICH NEWSPAPERS MISSED.....
Washington Post
The recent economic crisis hasn't exactly led to widespread angst or epiphanies among the wealthy in Greenwich, Conn. But the town's religious leaders are at the ready anyway.
Loss Souls
Washington Post
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
GREENWICH, Conn. It isn't easy to get the super-rich to discuss their money woes, and the Rev. Chuck Davis, who runs the Stanwich Church here in the hedge-fund capital of the world, has tried. His flock includes the mandarins of finance who've lost fortunes in the stock market debacle. In a recent sermon, he urged parishioners to simply admit that they're enduring a terrible ordeal.
"C'mon, let's us talk about it, right now," he said from the pulpit. "There's fear. I've never seen this kind of fear in people. There's concern. Our world has been rocked in some ways. I think we've come to realize that we've lived an illusion for a little while, haven't we?"
This isn't an "Amen!" kind of place, but listeners were rapt.
"And we've been shocked," he continued, "even though it was an illusion and it wasn't a reality, coming back to reality, we still want to know that God's in the midst of it. Because darkness would seem to drown out our hope and sense of well-being.".
Uplifting words, and delivered to a group that you have to assume could use a hug. But if there is darkness here in Greenwich, it's not visible, at least not yet. The impeccably kept home to scores of suddenly unemployed and just barely employed investment bankers, Greenwich is the most famous of the money towns of Fairfield County -- along with Darien, New Canaan and others -- where some 28,000 millionaires resided the last time anyone counted. The area has just suffered its version of a Category 5 hurricane. If there was a FEMA for portfolio devastation, Greenwich would be swarming with feds.
But this disaster has unfolded on the QT. To find the stress points and hints of agony, you have to look around. A total of five homes have gone to foreclosure of late, though just two were worth more than $4 million -- mid-priced for this area. The town voted to eliminate 15 jobs last week, the first government layoffs anyone can recall. Just one family at the all-girls Greenwich Academy, where upper-school tuition costs $31,000 a year, has asked for financial aid.
"I hasten to add that, as with all independent schools, financial aid is need-based," says Molly King, head of the school. "There is paperwork to fill out and a vetting process."
At L'Escale, one of the pricier local restaurants, some specials were just announced. "The first drink is on us!" read a news release. Guests can choose from "sublimely balanced" cocktails said to be inspired by the seven virtues, one of which, ironically enough, is prudence.
"We're also doing a prix fixe menu, which we've never done before," Anshu Vidyarthi, L'Escale's manager, says on the phone. "I think the mood here is, 'We've had a great party, now let's make sure we can continue the party, so let's be smart about what we're doing.' " It might well be too early in Meltdown '08 for the residents of Greenwich to betray outward symptoms of financial distress. For some, this could be a matter of pride. Others who've lost money still have a ton left; they could be reeling and living large at the same time.
So we decided to poll the religious leaders of this town and spend a little time in the pews. Maybe the losses haven't yet caused a lot of overt damage. But how about interior struggles? Are people in Greenwich searching their souls? How about rethinking their priorities? Is anyone here -- and this might be too much to ask -- talking about regrets? ........
CONTINUED: Next
LAUNCH PHOTO GALLERY
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Free Republic
In the typhoon of commentary that's blown around the world a step behind the financial tsunami that's wrecking everything, two little words have been curiously absent: "fraud" and "swindle." But aren't they really at the core of what has happened? Wall Street took the whole world "for a ride" and now a handful of Wall Street's erstwhile princelings have shifted ceremoniously into US Government service to "fix" the problem with a "toolbox" containing a notional two trillion dollars. This strange exercise in financial kabuki theater will shut down sometime between the election and inauguration day, when the inaugurate finds himself president of the Economic Smoking Wreckage of the United States. What will happen? .....
... federal marshals be scouring the wainscoted hallways of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, not to mention a thousand Greenwich, Connecticut, hedge fund boiler rooms, with man-sized nets? A story-line is already emerging to the effect that these birds ...
...In the meantime, however, millions of Joe-the-Plumber types will have gotten their pink slips, slipped helplessly into foreclosure, watched the repo men hot-wire their Ford pickups, and eaten down the kitchen cupboard to a single box of Kellogg's All-Bran (which had been sitting there for eleven years infested with weevils). They will be watching the official proceedings in the federal courtrooms with jaundiced eyes as they hunch in their tent cities, in the rain, sipping amateur-brand raisin wine bartered for a few snared rock doves. How long before the hardier ones among them venture out to Easthampton with long knives and matches?....
.... As we discover ourselves to be a much poorer nation, one of my correspondents put it: "the bogus risk-swapping economy must be replaced by a net value-added economy." That means actually making things, growing things, and rebuilding things, and that can only begin to happen if we do not stupidly sucker ourselves into a war with other nations who are liable to be extremely ticked off at us for destroying the global economy, but also competing with us for a dwindling supply of resources that are not equitably distributed around the world.....
....The bottom line of all this is that we in the US could find ourselves in a situation of shortages, hoarding, and rationing. This would pretty much kill off whatever remains of the previous shuck-and-jive economy -- hamburger sales, theme park visits, Nascar weekends -- while it makes obvious the failures of our suburban living arrangements (and drives the value of housing there closer to zero).
The new president will have to be Franklin Roosevelt on steroids, with some Mahatma Gandhi and Florence Nightingale thrown in. My pet project of restoring the American passenger railroad system might seem pretty minor in the face of all this, but it's at least a place to start that will accomplish several things: allow people and things to get places without cars and trucks; put many thousands of people to work at many levels doing something of direct, practical value; and be a small step in rebuilding confidence that we are a society capable of accomplishing something.
The Raw Greenwich News Feed Continues:
Fed set to fight crisis with another cut
Reuters
... expect the FOMC to announce a 50-75 basis point rate cut," said Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners in Greenwich, Connecticut. A basis point is one one-hundredth of a percentage point. Just before Fed officials began meeting, a government ...
'I Care Deeply About Our Town'
Westport News
... railcars for Metro-North. During my tenure $187 million has been approved for the improvement of I-95 from Greenwich to North Stonington. The state legislature has approved $7.5 million for the purchase of 25 new Connecticut Transit buses and a ...
Richard Bloom returns to his musical roots
Easton Courier
... a family and a successful career as a Fairfield County Realtor slowly drew him away from that scene, the longtime Greenwich resident now finds himself returning to his musical roots with the formation of his new band, The Bramblemen. The group ...
Bruce Museum benefit has Parisian flavor
Easton Courier
... evening with the theme A Night in Paris / Une Nuit a Paris on Friday, Nov. 7, to support the Bruce Museum in Greenwich. The fund-raising event, at 7 p.m. in the museum galleries, melds exquisite French cuisine, extraordinary art, and generous ...
70-Month Prison Sentence In Wire Fraud Case
Hartford Courant
A 52-year-old Greenwich man who pleaded guilty in January to two counts of wire fraud was sentenced Tuesday to 70 months in federal prison and ordered to repay investors more than $5 million.
Bank of Japan Interest Rate Cut Speculation Increases After Nikkei Report
Bloomberg Business News
... 1995. `Limit Yen Strength' A rate cut ``fits with their desire to limit yen strength,'' said Alan Ruskin , the Greenwich, Connecticut-based head of international currency strategy in North America at RBS. Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa this week ...
Baseball pitcher Tom Glavine lists his 14,550-square-foot mansion in Alpharetta, GA for $3.75M Big Time Listings
... appears that he does not. And like the Real Estalker, we also had trouble identifying a property of Glavine's in Greenwich, Conn. that he was said to have owned while with the New York Mets. As everyone else has noted, it's pretty clear that Glavine ...
Public relations, press release distribution, investor relations, SEC filing
Business Wire
GREENWICH, Conn.-- --United Rentals, Inc. today announced financial results for its third quarter 2008.
A not too hot, not too cold obit
The Globe and Mail
... Economic Pioneer, Dies October 28, 2008 Goldilocks, beloved daughter of the modern economy, died peacefully at her Greenwich, CT home this morning. She is survived by her father, Alan Greenspan, and her adopted siblings the three bears. She will be ...
Blog: One in five Americans expects a drop in income
Los Angeles Times
... an even harder time moving merchandise without severe markdowns. Michael Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn., now is forecasting a decline in real (after-inflation) consumer spending in the current quarter "as large as those ...
HealthCare Ventures
Mass High Tech
... , which treats neonatal diseases. Also supporting the investment were Longitude Capital , which has an office in Greenwich, Conn.; Waltham-based Atlas Venture ; and FirstMark Capital , of New York. As part of the financing deal, HealthCare Ventures ...
Easthampton Burning?
Free Republic
... federal marshals be scouring the wainscoted hallways of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, not to mention a thousand Greenwich, Connecticut, hedge fund boiler rooms, with man-sized nets? A story-line is already emerging to the effect that these birds ...
InfaCare Pharmaceutical Corporation Raises $28 Million in Series B...
Venture Capital Access Online
... fund, the $325,000,000 Longitude Venture Partners, L.P., in 2008, and has offices in Menlo Park, California and Greenwich, Connecticut. For more information on Longitude Capital, please visit www.longitudecapital.com. About Atlas Venture Atlas ...
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