New York’s High End Girlfriend Index at an All-time Low!
29. Sep, 2008 
3 Comments
I wanted to share an interesting article I read by Keith B. Richburg in yesterdays’s Washington Post, “Power Shifts from N.Y. to D.C., After Wall Street’s Quake, Manhattan Braces for Financial Tsunami.” The article also explains how DC is now the nation’s financial capital. Here’s a look at how the financial crisis is affecting love and marriage in the Big Apple:
Renowned defense lawyer Edward W. Hayes, a self-described night owl, long ago developed two measurements for gauging the ups and downs of Wall Street: the HEGI and the HESI, which stand for High End Girlfriend Index and High End Stripper Index. When the financial sector’s business is good, he said, the traders and bankers spend huge sums on high-end girlfriends and in the VIP rooms of Manhattan’s pricey strip joints.
Now, said Hayes, who represents many of the woman in the business, he is seeing evidence of the downturn.
“The strippers are getting killed — it’s terrible,” he said. “It really started in the last month. What they really need are the guys who go in and spend $500.”
In fact, while New York City has for years enjoyed the fruits of Wall Street’s decade of dizzying success — an estimated 10 percent of all tax revenue comes from the Street — the highflying traders and financiers are far from loved in this city. For many, who didn’t share in the spoils, there is a certain sense of schadenfreude — enjoying the new misery of the formerly wealthy.
“I do have a vengeful streak in me,” said Rachelle Pachtman, a public relations consultant who lives in an Upper West Side building heavily populated by some of the rich and privileged financial titans.
“I know that there’s going to be a glut of apartments that are going to be dumped in the multimillion-dollar range,” Pachtman said. “They pay a lot for their mortgages. They’ve all got their children in . . . private schools. They all have a lifestyle. How are they going to keep this up?
“It’s going to take their breath away, because they’re going to have to deal with the reality that all the rest of us do,” she added. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people on the therapist’s couch — a very typical New York thing. People are going to start drinking a lot.”
Hope you enjoy the article!
- Miss A
Andrea Rodgers has been in Washington for over a decade, and is well-known for giving back to the local community. She has co-founded three major fundraisers - Blondes vs. Brunettes in 2005, The Courage Cup where she serves as President in 2006, and Fashion for Paws in 2007. In September 2008, Andrea launched two businesses — AskMissA.com, and Socialite Marketing, a full-service boutique marketing firm that provides businesses and brands with social media, public relations, marketing, and event planning services. She attended boarding school at Salem Academy, and graduated from Wake Forest University with a double major in Economics and Politics. Rodgers was recently hand picked by Vogue magazine to be a founding member of The Vogue 100, an organization "of influential decision makers and opinion leaders known for their distinctive taste in fashion and culture, [and who] personify the rising influence of women over the past several decades."
oof damn!
This was a really great article and i really liked reading it . Its really interesting and i hope there is more to come. keep up the good writing.
Oe, I like the article, thanks =D