Appetite for Recession

Remember that NY Magazine guy hoping for a recession so that his materialism might recede? The NY Times reports that other people are hoping for a recession too, but so their materialistic goals can be met:

Andre Anderson, 34, an account executive at TheDeal.com, a financial news Web site, would like to buy a Manhattan apartment with his girlfriend, but he said their combined incomes still make it nearly impossible to afford one.

Like many, he is rooting for what could be called a Bear Stearns discount, as newly unemployed financiers cut back on the buying binges that inflate the cost of life in the city.

“If there is greater good for everyone, is it worth a few people losing their jobs?” Mr. Anderson asked. “I think so. I hate to see people lose their jobs, but prices in the city have become ridiculous.”

From the Bronx to Staten Island, the disintegration of a bank known for its seven- and eight-figure salaries seemed to expose just how eager many New Yorkers are to release a little air from the city’s wealth bubble. Corey K. Cox, 32, who works at an equity research firm, hopes that the troubles for Bear Stearns workers may make it easier to buy a three-bedroom apartment or even a house in Brooklyn. His wife is expecting their second child in April.

It's like these people don't understand that the people with the seven and eight figure salaries will be fine, regardless of the current financial climate. It's the people that clean up after the those people, the ones who open their doors, the ones who drive their cars, the ones who answer their phones, those are the people who will truly suffer in the hoped-for economic downturn. Their hardship doesn't mean our benefit:

That’s why the troubles at Bear Stearns are a mixed blessing for New York’s lower ranks. The same masters of the universe who have made housing so expensive have beefed up the tax base, its sanitation services and its police force. They have, in many ways, underwritten the “new” New York City of the late 1990s and 2000s, defined by pristine parks and low murder rates.

And, of course, like the last time a recession was coming and everyone started talking about how easy it would get to find a cab or get a restaurant reservation, turns out nothing ever really changes in NYC:

But, at least so far, New York real estate prices show few signs of declining.

...

And don’t count on suddenly getting a next-day reservation at New York’s most popular restaurants. Waits for prime-time tables at Nobu are still four weeks, said Drew Nieporent, the force behind more than a dozen restaurants, including Rubicon and Tribeca Grill.

Even at the height of the ’80s economic downturn, Mr. Nieporent did not lower prices at his restaurants.