Wall Street Needs Two Queens And A Great Dame

I grabbed my mackintosh last week for a pre-dinner stroll along the Hudson River in lower Manhattan a couple of weeks ago. The go-to event was a drizzly tribute to the QE2, on her swan song dance down the Hudson.

This New York harbor walk came the night after a Ferrari-owning trader explained high finance to me, over martinis at New York's Soho Grand Hotel.

"It's like this, Anne. Wall Street has always been a game of musical chairs. In today's world, someone has to lose. Forget that Ayn Rand, enlightened, greater-good argument. The Street has always been a jungle without enough stools for everybody. Each day now, another chair is pulled away. If you think anyone is thinking clearly and caring about the future of the free world, well . . . have another martini, my dear."

I now recall stumbling into our Upper East Side kitchen at 6am, when my Solomon, ibanker partner was having a swig of morning vodka, preparing to face another grueling day. I said nothing, leaving the room as quietly as I came.

Perhaps we've not asked enough questions. What if my Soho Grand guy is right? What if all our outsider assumptions about how things work are totally wrong?

An Estrogen Mist Could Be A Key Ingredient In The Street's Financial Fix

Searching for a sense of psychological security in the New York fog, I was glad my friend the QE2 was not steaming solo across the Atlantic.

Her Majesty's gal pal on this final Atlantic Ocean crossing was another member of the Cunard royal family, the Queen Mary 2. This larger, more modern majesty stood anchored in waiting, near the Statue of Liberty.

Seeing her there brought a sense of reassuring order to my world. Tradition, reliability and duty stood tall in the New York Harbor.

Wiping away the evening mist on my face, I enjoyed my first laugh on a dreary, economically depressing day. The Queen Mary 2 appeared to me as a sophisticated, cultivated, reliable suitor waiting for a dance with the regal, composed, duty-driven QE2.

I could only describe them as two cruise ships going on a date. Lady bisexuals? Perhaps. It's a major trend in female sexuality.

Seeing an ocean vessel as an impatient lover or intimate best friend is a stretch of one's creative imagination, but no crazier than photos of jubilant traders high-fiving on Monday, then crying desperately in their beer two days later.

Literature implying that women have an exclusive reign over irrational, hormonal outbursts must be written and researched by men. Mars and Venus bedroom spats are one life challenge. Bringing down the global economy is another.

Article Author: Anne of Carversville

Corporate marketing and branding consultant, a 10-year executive with Victoria's Secret stores, new business development entrepreneur, women's sexuality expert, and aspiring writer, Anne questions herself and others, too, about the delicate balance …

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