New York Sign Language Money Worries Stocked in New Yorkers' Minds By BOB YAMPOLSKY	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
ニューヨーカーはお金が心配 4月15日は確定申告の日です。筆者はいつもぎりぎりまで申告をしないので、締め切り間際の長い行列に並ぶのが常です。確定申告の時期と相まって、最近はインターネットで株売買をする人たちが増えたためか、株価とお金の話題が巷をにぎわせているようです。

Our subject this month is money.

As I sit writing this, it is April 15, which is marked on all our calendars. April 15, you see, is the deadline for filing taxes in the United States. Just about everyone with an income has to file a return. (Because April 15 is a Saturday this year, we procrastinators have been given an extra weekend: This year, the actual deadline is Monday, 17.) You send in your taxes by mail; on Monday, there will be lines at the post office that you wouldn't believe.

I will be one of the people lined up, unfortunately; I've always been a last-minute filer. Last year I bought a software program to help me with my taxes, but it didn't do any good.

So this year, I paid an accountant $1,500 (¥157,500) to do my taxes, which are slightly complicated because I have to file business and personal returns.

So this is one reason that money is on all our minds. (Actually, if you are a New Yorker, chances are you are always thinking about money, whether you are the panhandler or the fund manager controlling billions of dollars.) Another reason is the stock market, which took a great dive yesterday. It dominated the newspaper headlines, of course ("CRASH!"), and in the supermarket this morning I overheard people whispering about other people's losses. Even during the Yankees game last year, the announcers brought the subject up, comparing the dip in a pitcher's curveball to the dip that the market took.

The New York Stock Exchange is an actual place, a floor where brokers gather and make trades using slips of paper, as they have for over 200 years. The other major stock exchange in New York (and hence in America) is the NASDAQ, although it doesn't really exist, as NASDAQ trades are all done by computer. But down in Times Square there is a huge NASDAQ sign with the stock prices of NASDAQ companies.

The stock market has always been an important part of New York, but it used to be that only some people were interested in it, and most really didn't give it much thought. In the past few years all that has changed. Suddenly everyone is interested in stocks. Stocks have become one of those universal subjects, like the weather or baseball, that you can use virtually any time with anyone.

Just about everybody owns some stock. Here in the U.S., by and large, individuals have become responsible for saving money for their retirement funds, and managing those funds, and most of those funds are kept in stocks. And with the Internet, it has become a whole lot easier to buy and sell stocks. If you set up an account with an online broker, you essentially make the trades yourself. The brokerage fee for most online trades is around $10 (¥1,050) to $20 (¥2,100), or about a tenth of what traditional brokers charge.

New York benefits from a strong stock market in the same way that the rest of America does: People who own stocks have become much wealthier. But New York's economy gets an added kick from the bull market, as the finance industry is located here, and there are a lot of people making a lot of money in finance. My stockbroker friend Bill complains because his seven-figure bonus was, as he puts it, "under market." I tell him, "Shut up, Bill."

There is so much wealth out there that we have begun to lose a sense of proportion. Being a millionaire used to be the definition of wealth, but there are so many millionaires that you aren't really wealthy unless you have at least $100 million (¥10.5 billion). The shortstop for the Yankees will make $10 million (¥1.05 billion) this year, and he is considered grossly underpaid.

It is going to be sad when the bubble finally bursts. Bubbles are bright and shiny, and this stock bubble is the main reason that New York is so bright and shiny. Because this bubble is so big, the bursting is likely to be messy, and it will be New York that is hit hardest of all. There will be big layoffs on Wall Street, which will have a ripple effect throughout the economy. The real estate market will crash, and the restaurants that are so popular will be empty and closing their doors. The city's tax revenues will fall, services will be cut, and the buoyant feeling of the past several years will be replaced by something heavier and oppressive: reality.

But perhaps this will not be a completely bad thing. The other day, I saw a TV ad, which was in no way ironic, that had a man in his pajamas, sitting up in bed, with a laptop, speaking on the phone. He hangs up and explains how good his online broker is: He can get help at any time, so he doesn't have to "lose sleep" worrying about his stocks. Who could possibly find this ad appealing? 21st century Americans, that is who. We are becoming a nation of people who check their stocks before going to bed. We may have become wealthier and smarter investors, but we have become duller people.

Shukan ST: April 28, 2000

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