"The last overhead to go is a high end girlfriend"

Michael Daly of the New York Daily News reports that the financial meltdown is forcing former Wall Street big shots to dump their "high end girlfriends" as a cost cutting measure:

"The last overhead to go is a really high-end girlfriend," [Charles] Hayes says. "If you're a short, ugly 40-year-old guy and you're throwing over a high-quality girlfriend, you're desperate."

The absolute economic low comes with a realization that Hayes summarizes in a sentence.

"I can't afford her anymore!"

Girlfriends as disposable accessories, charming.

Comments

[minstrel hussain boy]

i believe the euphemism for "girlfriends" of that kind is "light hook."

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

When Wall Street big shots buy the company of women, they're girlfriends. When Eliot Spitzer bought the same service, he's criminal. Same old, same old.

[mudkitty]

Wow. Only in Manhatten or L.A.

Let's call it what it is...hookers and johns.

[Ozymandias]

"High end" girlfriends? WTF? Where does one purchase such a commodity? Are there dealers in such items? Are they tax-deductible business expenses? Here in Australia, we call them whores.

[greensmile]

"...charming."

I'd call it "Republican values in action".

[TB]

Yeah, "charming" for sure, but look at the guys we're talking about, they're not the most tasteful people on the planet to begin with.

Before they made money they probably drove 3r hand Fieros and had many nice Nagel prints, but now, given a budget, just think where their tastes have run.

[Hawise]

*headdesk*

[The Phantom]

I'd call it "Republican values in action".

Was not aware that Eliot Spitzer, or Barney Frank for that matter, were Republicans. Who wouldda thought.

[Uncle Kvetch]

How tawdry. If these guys had any class they'd find a nice beer heiress to marry.

[The Phantom]

Yes. Or the rich widow of a senator who died in a plane crash.

[joeblo]

I went to a tech school. I've met some fairly wealthy quants. Having talked to some of them and their 'girlfriends', I'd have to say they're only a few steps above Craigslist hookups. I wouldn't sell my body for Gucci Prada and Blahniks (and more importantly the status that comes with them), but some of these girls have chosen to. I also wouldn't call someone who did my girlfriend... prostitutes deserve more respect.

I guess I'm glad they aren't mail-order-brides. 'Throwing them over' certainly has a disgusting image associated with it, but that goes with the disgusting behavior.

[Cass]

I wish these women well finding alternate work in this economy. As for the "big shots", let me know when they start leaping off skyscrapers.

[Bloix]

"Alternate work?" Becoming contractors is more like it. They can go from being girlfriends to offering the girlfriend experience.

[Cass]

Or, perhaps there'll be a dance marathon coming up.

[ballgame]

Boyfriends as disposable wallets, charming.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

The article is entirely about the preferences of the men. That's part of what's so obnoxious about the story, the women aren't even discussed as people with preferences.

It doesn't say that these girlfriends are rejecting their formerly rich boyfriends (which would indeed be sleazy, unless they are literally escorts in which case they're no different from dry cleaners and other folks who expect to get paid).

[Norman Costa]

NEW ECONOMIC INDICATOR

We have a variety of indirect measures of gross economic performance. For example, we have a survey of attitudes of purchasing managers, numbers of applications for unemployment insurance, inventory volumes, durable goods orders, and surveys of consumer confidence.

As a researcher and statistician I'll bet dollars to donuts that the level of mistress acquisition or dropping, by mid- and high-level officers and executives, will correlate very closely with macro economic indicators like GDP. The only problem is that it will probably lag the economy and not be a very good predictor of what's around the corner.

My hypothesis is that executive sponsorship of dedicated personal hook ups (or is it hooks up) will not show acquisition activity until the money is there - meaning after the economy is doing well enough to merit higher pay and bonuses, thus capitalizing the acquisitions. On the mistress dumping side of the equation, benefactors are unlikely to cede their prerogatives in anticipation of a downturn. More likely, they will hold on as long as possible, till the last possible moment, to be able to hear adoring reviews like: "Oh! You know everything.", or "I think chubby bald men are sexy."

[Women of means do the same thing - gay and straight - except I don't know the lines they use.]

"More good news for the economy. A survey of manufacturing and purchasing managers shows a rise in economic confidence for the third quarter in a row. Also, 21 percent of executives, who have a significant performance based compensation, say that are LIKELY or VERY LIKELY to position a mistress in a his/her own residence in the next 60 days. Now back to Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo at the anchor desk."

[Bruce the Canuck]

The problem with finding fault with the behavior of the people involved, is that all three - the boyfriends, the girlfriends, and the writer of this article - have values that make them less than sympathetic. Is there moral hazard when everybody involved is an asshole?

Iin Vancouver a year ago, 6 people were shot in a gang club at a table, half of them young women sitting next to their gangbanger boyfriends. They were shot as a result of their values - they value violent men. I had no sympathy whatsoever (btw, I think they lived). These women value shallow, materialistic men. Ditto. A story without real victims.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I'm mostly complaining about the columnist who wrote the article and the self-styled "expert" who compiled the so-called high end girlfriend index. That way of speaking literally describes women as indexable commodities comparable to pork bellies or copper futures or the Dow. That's offensive. For the record, I'm equally repulsed by women's magazine articles about how to attract a rich husband.

My point isn't about the emotional fallout from the financial meltdown. Financial upheavals strain relationships. That's a basic fact of human emotional life. If a stockbroker at Lehman Brothers loses his or her job and breaks up with his or her partner, I'm not going to assume that either party was a bad or shallow person.

Being attracted to someone who's violent or otherwise unsuitable doesn't mean you necessarily have bad values. And even if you do have somewhat warped romantic priorities, it doesn't mean it's less of a tragedy when you get gunned down hanging out with your college boyfriend.

[Norman Costa]

I thought I was being even handed, or even gendered; not to mention satirical. A 'high end girlfriend index' would be repugnant, if that is what was said. It wasn't. The men, where I do mention men, come off as sorry and inadequate. Later I refer to mistress as him/her.

[Bruce the Canuck]

Well, my lack of sympathy comes from the 3 times I've been threatened by a violent thug, with his girlfriend in the background grinning and egging him on. One of them has the size for violence, but both are equally violent in my opinion. I've had similar experiences with financial power issues. The problem is that the face of the grinning spectator to aggression sometimes burns into your memory more than the aggressor's.

[Bruce the Canuck]

BTW, I do agree with your thoughts about the article objectifying women. I just suspect the women and men involved are both objectifying each other equally.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I agree, there are peer groups who keep mutually bad company, irrespective of gender or orientation.

Bruce, are you from Vancouver? I came back for a visit right after the shooting I think you're talking about. Weirdly, the restaurant was about five doors down from my brother's favorite late night Vietnamese noodle joint. Loren said he always wondered why that place would close at 11:30 and open again at three in the morning.

Norm, there was a specifically a high-end girlfriend index in the original article, which was sexist. A high end hookup index wouldn't be sexist, though.

[Norman Costa]

Sorry, I didn't read the article first which mentions the HEGI. It's repugnant.

[Bruce the Canuck]

Yes, the shooting site was 1 block from where I lived at the time. It's not a comforting feeling, but drunk guys in the club area scare me more than gang shootings. More random.