This financial crisis was different–it was doom itself. The article below describes the destruction well, picture: 4,000 dismissals at Morgan Stanley, 5,000 at Merrill Lynch, 7,000 at UBS, 16,000 at Citigroup. Bear was the firm to work at a year ago, and now it’s gone–10,000 of its former employees looking for work. The ripple effect: more mortgage unpaid, evictions, kids pulled out of school, families moving, marriages falling apart, careers ended, nervous breakdowns, economy slips further, more layoffs… repeat.

James J. Cramer, “Wall Street is in the midst of its biggest, ugliest, worst round of layoffs in decades,” NY Magazine (June 15, 2008).