The Best And Brightest Are All On Wall Street

And in case you were wondering about that bailout:

There are hundreds of storefront clairvoyants and high-end spiritual advisers in the city ready to quench the thirst for insights into the forces that control one’s life.

And now with the turmoil engulfing the financial markets, some psychics say they have been experiencing a boom in business linked to deep worries about money.

. . .

In an apartment in the East Village, opposite Tompkins Square Park, another psychic, Rosanna Schaffer-Shaw, a former belly dancer, offers her insights under the name Fahrusha, which she translates from Arabic to mean butterfly or moth. “I prefer butterfly,” said Ms. Schaffer-Shaw, who specializes in tarot card reading and palmistry, as well as photograph interpretation and communicating with animals.

“People are concerned about their jobs,” said Ms. Schaffer-Shaw, sitting in her brightly painted pink room devoted to readings, where she charges $150 per session. On a shelf were a couple of crystal balls, candles and a feather. “I hear more questions about jobs lasting even if the person is not in the financial sector,” she said.

On a recent afternoon, Ms. Schaffer-Shaw advised three clients, all of whom requested that they be identified by a single initial, some because they worried that their turning to a psychic might cause problems at work.

Mr. S was an artist who said he hoped to reap a windfall from the stronger market for contemporary art. Ms. Schaffer-Shaw told him, “In the past, you have been neglectful of the business aspects of your career.” Mr. S laughed and replied, “Have I ever,” as Ms. Schaffer-Shaw conjured up the names of Manhattan galleries that might be interested in his artwork.

She pointed a lavender-painted fingernail to two tarot cards, the Six and the Nine of Pentacles: “This card says you are worried about your finances. You won’t want to spend money on luxury items. You also will not be able to be as generous to others as you would like.” She advised against buying stock in financial firms and urged him to consider investing in utilities or water purification systems.

Ms. E, who is planning a business venture with another client of Ms. Schaffer-Shaw’s, a Chinese investment banker, asked questions about the Shanghai economy, where the two plan to open a frozen yogurt company. She wanted to know whether the media stock she had bought on the Chinese market would go up after its recent loss, and even what flavors and toppings her company should offer.

Who’s PILOTing This Ship?

I still can’t understand why that thing costs $1.3 billion:

New York City and the Yankees may have violated federal tax regulations and state laws in using $943 million in tax-exempt bonds to build the baseball team’s new stadium, according to a report issued on Tuesday by Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky.

Saying the taxpayers are footing the bill for the $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and are getting little in return other than higher ticket prices and the loss of parkland, Mr. Brodsky, a frequent critic of the deal, said that the report stems from a review of thousands of pages of previously unreleased documents.

Although city officials and the Yankees hotly disputed many of the findings, the report concluded that the city and the state invested as much as $850 million in cash and tax breaks in the new stadium, which sits across 161st Street from the team’s historic home in the South Bronx.

. . .

Mr. Brodsky and other critics have argued that the city violated federal tax regulations by manipulating the assessed value of the land beneath the stadium so that the team’s annual payment in lieu of taxes would effectively equal the annual payments to bondholders, or debt service, of $56.7 million beginning in 2010.

. . .

The Yankees and the Bloomberg administration have always insisted that the team is paying for the new stadium, unlike almost every other professional sports team. The use, however, of tax-exempt bonds, will provide the team with savings of about $181 million over the life of the bonds, according to the Independent Budget Office.

Mr. Brodsky contends that because the Yankees will pay the city an annual sum in lieu of taxes, that money, in turn, is being diverted from city coffers to pay the debt service on the bonds.

There is no question that taxpayers are making a sizable investment in the new Yankee Stadium, as well as a new stadium for the Mets in Queens. The city and the state agreed to provide the Yankees with more than $300 million in cash subsidies for garages, a Metro-North train station, replacement parks and road work. But the teams do not pay rent for playing on city land, nor do they pay property taxes.

The Bloomberg administration successfully lobbied the Internal Revenue Service to approve the use of the tax-exempt bonds for the stadium, which did not initially qualify. But the I.R.S. later issued a proposal that would tighten the rules governing such bonds so it would be nearly impossible for this kind of financing to be used again by a profitable sports franchise.

Another Music In A Different Kitchen, for comparison’s sake.

Lehman Folds . . .

. . . black car companies hardest hit:

A Brooklyn-based livery cab company is feeling the pinch more than most after the dramatic collapse of Lehman Brothers this week.

Corporate Transportation Group, which has a fleet of 1,400 vehicles in the city, had a contract with Lehman to shepherd thousands of the investment giant’s employees around town.

Now many of its drivers, who would normally line up for hours outside Lehman headquarters waiting for workers, have to spend more time driving to make up for the loss of income.

“We’re getting hammered,” said Eduard Slinin, 44, who started Corporate Transportation when he was 17 years old in 1982. “Lehman was one of our biggest clients. We would do 800 rides a night. We never believed Lehman would collapse. It’s like a bad dream.”

This must have been what the mayor was worried about.

A Start: We Can Make Up 0.1 Percent Of That Projected $2.3 Billion Budget Deficit Right There!

And incidentally, a darn good way to make people forget about all those advertisements for councilmembers that are currently found on trashcans across the city:

As the city struggles to close a growing budget gap, lawmakers are proposing selling advertising rights to garbage bins, scaffolding, and even city park facilities, efforts they say could bring millions of dollars a year to city coffers.

Council Member David Yassky of Brooklyn is calling for the city to begin allowing advertising on municipal trash cans and suggested that such a move, which he estimated could bring $2.5 million in revenue, would help during difficult economic times.

“We need to be as creative as we can about finding sources of revenues to ease the burden on taxpayers,” Mr. Yassky said yesterday. “We sold advertising on newsstands and bus shelters and other so-called street furniture. There’s just no reason not to extend that to trash cans.”

Maybe Few Believe Universal Health Insurance Is On The Way Any Time Soon?

I was wondering who exactly was agitating for the repeal of term limits, since it seems to be a relatively arcane argument, but now it makes sense:

The elected leaders pushing to overturn New York City’s term limits say they are motivated by principled objections to the 15-year-old law.

But should they succeed, many stand to gain a significant financial perk: lifetime retiree health insurance that costs the city up to $12,600 a year.

Those benefits could amount to millions of dollars in expenses over the next few decades, especially as health insurance costs surge, according to interviews with city officials.

Under current rules, city employees must work 10 years and pay into the pension system to become eligible for retiree health benefits. But the term limits law restricts members of the City Council, the mayor, public advocate, comptroller and borough presidents to two consecutive four-year terms — two years shy of the requirement.

Changing term limits to three consecutive terms instead of two, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and members of the Council have hinted they might, would allow those officials — and members of their staff — to hit the 10-year mark without having to look for a new job with the city.