New York Has Had Since The Buttonwood Agreement Of 1792 — Over 200 Years — To Insulate Itself From The Vagaries Of The Stock Market

Not that that will change anytime soon:

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned yesterday that the city faces budget gaps of $3.5 billion and $8 billion in the next two fiscal years — far higher than previous forecasts.

That’s a sharp increase from the $1.3 billion and $5 billion deficits Mayor Bloomberg projected last month in his budget plan for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. It even surpasses the state Financial Control Board’s dire figures that came out just five days ago and put the city’s budget gaps at $2.3 billion and $6.4 billion.

The FCB didn’t have time to include the impact of severe cuts in state aid proposed by Gov. Paterson on Dec. 16.

. . .

Bloomberg is scheduled to release his updated strategy for dealing with that possibility next month.

The Bigger Question Is Which Stores Would Accept Your Credit Card?

Things you don’t want to be caught doing while your father is under house arrest for bilking investors of billions include last-minute Christmas shopping:

Bernard Madoff’s investors have lost everything, but his son and daughter-in-law seemed without a care in the world yesterday as they dashed around SoHo on a holiday shopping spree.

Andrew Madoff, 42, who worked with brother Mark at their dad’s now-failed financial firm, still drives around in a BMW SUV to do his holiday shopping, loading up with purchases from J.Crew, Longchamp, Kidrobot and other tony stores in SoHo.

Andrew and wife Deborah, 41, who live on the Upper East Side, also shopped at American Eagle and a high-end lamp store, and checked out the windows at Vera Wang.

So Will They Be Less Ornery About Driving Out To Brooklyn Now?

Right now the problem is not so much that people are taking cabs less often but rather there are too many cabbies:

With thousands of New Yorkers newly laid off there are more drivers than cabs. And many garage owners say they are turning would-be drivers away.

“‘Come back tomorrow, maybe tomorrow,’ is what I’m telling people who aren’t my steady drivers,” said Syed (Sunny) Zahoori, who has managed Harlem Yellow Cab for 17 years. “I’m sending people home every shift without a car. It’s a very bad situation.”

City officials say the number of New York City hack licenses are at an all-time high, with 45,805 taxicab drivers ready to hit the road.

Equally striking, the number of new hack licenses the city issued rose 19% in the past three months – when the brunt of the crisis hit – compared with the same period in 2007.

. . .

Richard Wissak, vice president of 55 Stan Operating Corp. in Long Island City, Queens, said he started to see a surge in applicants in the past few months.

Not surprising, given a new unemployment study showing New York City has lost about 10,000 jobs since employment peaked in August, with thousands more expected.

“They’re coming from more varied backgrounds than before – real estate brokers, Wall Street people, hotel people,” said Wissak, who manages 130 cabs and 600 drivers. “We have to turn people away. You can’t show up on a lucrative Friday night and say, ‘Surprise, I’m here,’ and expect to get a car.”

One driver, who said he was a successful Realtor and mortgage broker in Queens for 20 years, said he started driving a cab a few months ago, after his business went bust. The nicely dressed father of two said he had two college tuitions to pay.

He declined to give his name, “not because I am ashamed, or embarrassed, but my children are,” he said. “We are very well-known in our community and lived a good life for so many years.”

2009 Calls For Longer Hair, Rattier Soles . . .

. . . and a hopelessly out of date iPod:

Gov. Paterson doesn’t understand all the fuss about the $4 billion in new taxes and fees he has proposed to help close a $15.4 billion budget gap.

“We found a lot of little taxes that are optional,” Paterson said on WOR radio. “In other words, people can stay away from these items and don’t have to pay the tax.”

Nothing But Net(s)

Right into the wastebasket:

In yet another slap against developer Forest City Ratner, architect Frank Gehry has axed nearly every employee working on the stalled Atlantic Yards project, sources told the Daily News.

“Almost all the people working on the Brooklyn project got laid off,” said a source familiar with the cuts who claimed the developer had refused to pay Gehry additional costs for design revisions. “Basically, he’s not willing to pay.”

Gehry’s Los Angeles-based firm laid off two dozen employes working on the Atlantic Yards projects the day before Thanksgiving, according to sources.

Location Scout: Atlantic Yards.