50,000 job losses?

Bear Stearns gone...now Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch sold at $50bn, we're potentially witnessing 50,000 jobless bankers out there. May be good news to the surviving banks but its bad news for those fresh grads planning to start a career in IBanking as they'll be competing with far more experience ppl. Its going to be really tough.

When Bear Stearns got bought over, I remembered how senior bankers at my firm were laughing and making fun about them, especially after they made a statement prior to its sale that the company was not in trouble and assured the market that it could weather the storm. That was the end of an 85 year old bank.

I wonder to what extend will BoA scale-down Merrill's Asian operations...