NEW YORK, NEW YORK, IT'S A DOWN-THE-DRAIN TOWN:  One of the biggest stories of our era is the sharp decline of American cities.  Crime is in control.  Pseudo-educators are dumbing down the schools.  Actual people are leaving some cities by the tens of thousands.  And finances are often in shambles.

San Francisco is a prime example.  You've seen the pictures, you've heard accurate stories about hard-left politicians working to wreck the effectiveness of the police.

New York City has a special problem.  It is heavily dependent on Wall Street for its economic survival, and Wall Street is turning into Wail Street.  Things are not good.  Brother, can you spare a billion?  From the New York Post:

A giant, sucking sound is coming out of Wall Street — and it’s siphoning staggering sums of money out of the Big Apple while handing business to Florida and other states.

Nearly 160 Wall Street firms have moved their headquarters out of New York since the end of 2019, taking nearly $1 trillion — yes, that’s trillion with a “T” — in assets under management with them, according to data from 17,000 companies compiled by Bloomberg.

Looking to dodge rampant crime, stiff taxes and an increasingly exorbitant cost of living, 158 fed-up financial firms representing a whopping $993 billion in assets have packed up and left the Big Apple, taking thousands of high-paid employees with them, the data shows.

Icahn Capital Management — headed by billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn — is among the most prominent firms to decamp to the Sunshine State. In August 2020, the firm ditched his posh Manhattan digs atop Fifth Avenue’s General Motors Building in favor of a 14-story office complex in a Miami suburb.

Icahn’s firm, which manages $22.2 billion in assets, now conducts business less than a mile away from his mansion in Indian Creek Village.

Meanwhile, hedge-fund tycoon Paul Singer’s Elliott Management — which commandeers a total of $59.2 billion after shaking up investment targets including AT&T, Twitter and the government of Argentina — moved its headquarters from Midtown Manhattan to West Palm Beach, Fla., in October 2020.

One year later, closely watched tech-stock guru Cathie Wood — famous for her bold, windfall bet on Elon Musk’s car maker Tesla –moved her firm ARK Investment Management — and its $24.7 billion worth of assets — to St. Petersburg, Fla.

In all, 56 of the New York firms have decamped to Florida, while most of those remaining also headed to warmer states such as Texas and the Carolinas, according to the report. New York isn’t the only major loser, with California also having lost $1 trillion in financial assets under management to Florida, Texas and other lower-cost states.

Other major losers to Florida include Chicago, which lost billionaire Ken Griffin’s giant hedge fund Citadel to Miami last year.

The mass migration threatens a crippling economic blow: Last year, Wall Street accounted for 16% of all the economic activity in the city and 7.3% of economic activity statewide. The latter figure is the highest in the nation by far, towering above the national average of just 1.7%, according to an October report by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Likewise, the exodus has grave tax implications for the city and state. Last year, financial firms paid $5.4 billion in New York taxes and accounted for nearly a quarter of all personal income tax collections, according to the report.

COMMENT:   Yes, they say, but New York has been in trouble before, and has bounced back.  But it bounced back at a time when it was truly the Big Apple.  There is a different psychology today.  Even the most parochial New Yorkers must admit that there actually are other great places to live in these United States.  Leaving New York, and thousands have already done so, is no longer considered sinful. 

The City Council is to the left of Lenin.  The state legislature is to the left of the City Council.  Republican headquarters may not actually have a phone.

I'll keep you posted.  And don't give up on New York.  There are great artists in the city, and great sports teams, and actual live theater, where living humans say words on stage, right in front of you.  What is needed are an economy that reaches more people, and a huge improvement in the national morale.   

August 22,  2023