Greenwich Facing 'Financial Tsunami'

Posted by: Tim Halbur

27 September 2008 - 1:00pm

Greenwich, Connecticut is a rich enclave of hedge fund managers- and thus is feeling the pain of the current financial crisis like a ton of bricks. Ned Lamont, a Greenwich resident who ran for Senate in 2006, says, 'This is our Katrina.'

"'I don't know what will happen,' said Adie von Gontard, an heir to the Budweiser beer fortune who owns a 20-acre estate in one of Greenwich's best neighborhoods. 'We've had depressions and wars, but we don't know how lucky we are.'

First Selectman Peter Tesei said Wall Street affects everything from philanthropic contributions to a potential increase in public school enrollment if some families can no longer afford private schools. A recently laid-off trader who was making several million dollars annually 'is not going to be able to donate the $200,000 they did in the past' to charities, Tesei said.

'While I don't think we're in a crisis, we want to be proactive' in monitoring the markets, he said. 'By and large, the general population is very cautious.'"

Full Story: For Greenwich, ‘This Is Our Katrina’

Source: The Wall St. Journal, September 25, 2008

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Sickening

Submitted by Mike Lydon on Sun, 09/28/2008 - 06:56.

To equate financial excess and its backlash with a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina is sickening. Yes, the current downturn will ripple through the economy in several ways. However, I have little sympathy for those who helped create this mess, the greedy bankers,traders, lenders etc., and their outsized lifestyles in Greenwich, Connecticut. Poor taste Mr. Lamont.