The golden opportunities of an economic slowdown

The word hit advanced finance classes in hushed whispers. Students who follow the financial tables like the NBA standings were throwing their hands up in despair -- Wall Street was freezing new hires. Banks, transformed from global giants with waists bursting from 30 percent annual growth, lost their appetite. Suddenly oversized trading groups and portly advisory teams had to make weight. Growth is out, slim is in. Nobody could put a finger on what really precipitated the change. But something somewhere disrupted the seemingly swift and strong digestion of consumption. Suddenly, the tight-knit world of liberal economic accountability started to kick in. People began to tug and pull as they tested the liquidity and sustainability of those to which they were tied. And when push comes to shove, the bosses at the top of every business pyramid decided they were happier to preserve their present value as opposed to building for the future. And the results: The CEO holds off on buying his own timeshare plane and sticks to the company jet. The middle manager goes to Club Med in Jamaica, not the Four Seasons in Bali. The factory worker gets laid off because his wages are fixed. And students, even from the Ivy League, are left out in the cold. Yesterday, corporate recruiters were in a feeding frenzy. They treated colleges and graduating classes like a self-replicating, never-ending resource -- a hatchery designed for unadulterated exploitation. Today, Wall Street is the bearer of a plague -- heightened but unmet expectations. Before, campus recruiting was a clearinghouse. Now, it's nothing more than a sick bay for the brokenhearted that had minds and wallets set on jobs that vanished overnight. The worst part is that it has nothing to do with us. Our resumes are strong; the curriculum hasn't changed. Students from the class of 2001 are no different than those from any other graduating year. One other thing has become clear -- Wall Street can be a fair weather friend. They loved us when they needed us, and managed to suck us into the interests of their success. Now, they see us as dead weight. All that stuff about building future leaders -- put it on hold for a while. So, now that we've learned our first lesson in exogenous events and seen the face of the Wall Street phantom -- in its own version of the Broadway play -- what next? Perhaps there is some value in not being pulled into a system from which it's difficult to depart. It's tough to walk away when it's high times, but now that things are less exciting we're forced to look in different directions. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to muck around a bit after school. The years directly after college are an opportunity to exploit a fantastic and expansive freedom. Before we become locked in the pursuit of promotions and the dangling carrot of annual bonuses, we should think about tasting the fruits of that luxurious albeit impoverished lifestyle. Still bitter? Here's more consolation. These economic woes aren't ours to fix, nor do we have any vested financial interest in facilitating a comeback. It's somebody else's headache; we don't need to maintain large cash flows to pay for the Gulfstream's parking. So we might as well ride on the backs of those who are financially exposed. Besides, who wants to work in a company where the coffee is rationed every morning and the paper clips are counted at night? But that economic comeback period can be long and arduous. And besides, things will work out in the end. If we have faith in our economic system, we must believe it will snap back and rediscover its appetite for growth. Then, the really rich and exciting windows of opportunity will open and beckon us, and the symbiotic relationship between the young and ambitious and the establishment will resume once again. But not before we have a little fun that the big kids truly can't afford. Let's do some exploiting of our own and see what lies beyond the closed windows of corporate America. The uncontrollable events of economics have given us an excuse. And it might be our golden opportunity.

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