The new establishment
Crouching, its brows furrowed and back muscles tense, the bronze bull of New York’s financial district looks ready to charge—a mere second away from thundering through the pavements of Wall Street and crashing into everything in its path. Years ago, this iconic bull was a firm representation of all the brave and blinded dreamers, young or old, who aspired for a slice of the pie in what is considered the world’s most expensive street. Perhaps what Russian author Katya Cohen said was right: “You are either on Wall Street or you’re a bum, and there’s nothing in between.”
But those days are long gone, and the Charging Bull doesn’t seem to be charging anymore. It seems like it is simply leaning on its side before its eventual fall. Dow Jones, a widely used indicator of the stock market’s performances, reported a loss of 1,079 points in the first week of January. This means that stock prices have been in a free fall. News reports say this has been the stock market’s worst start since 2008, and also its worst since 2011 in terms of weekly loss percentages. The turmoil in China’s plunging stock market and the falling prices of crude oil have led investing authority George Soros to say that 2016 is starting to feel like the 2008 financial crisis.
There is trouble on this gold-paved street. And a bleak, uncertain future is down the road. For how long the bull can sustain this weight on its hunched back is a mystery; no quick answers are expected to turn up soon.
It is not surprising, therefore, that when I recently caught up with a friend and fellow accountant, he said that he no longer had his eyes on Wall Street. It used to be the highest aspiration back then, when we were still working through our worksheets and finance books as accounting students, to become part of the financial jungle that is Wall Street, breathing the same air as the investment bankers and financial wizards. But in light of recent events, he said he had set his sights elsewhere, as several others have done. A lot are trading Wall Street for lush greenery in the valley—Silicon Valley. And the migration trend is clear.
Silicon Valley is the home of today’s large technological companies, such as Apple, Facebook, Google, Tesla, Uber and the hyped Netflix, which recently arrived at our Philippine shores. The universally known valley has provided an avenue for startup companies. It has also welcomed individual innovators brimming with brilliant ideas on how to bridge the gap between our needs and technological advances. It can accommodate young creative minds—heck, even college dropouts—who have a unique blueprint on how to change the world and then make multimillionaires out of themselves in the briefest span of time.
We’re a generation so keen on technology, and it is no wonder that Silicon Valley is attracting millennials everywhere. The attention has veered away from what we used to consider the traditional occupations that harvest incredible wealth. It used to be that to become wealthy means to become a banker, a fund manager, a stock broker, or a financial analyst. What could bring home money more than those jobs that involve working with money?
But today, technology is the driving force behind lucrative careers and expanding companies. Even in my graduate school for business, we have been studying, dissecting and analyzing the lives of the likes of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Nick Woodman of GoPro, and Elon Musk of Tesla. They have broken the traditional formulas for success, such that they are either young or adventurous, or both.
Enter the new establishment, a new generation of movers and shakers who embody not only the success we wish to achieve but also the wealth of 1 percent of the population. They are surprisingly young to be massively rich. Neither are they scions of a long lineage of aristocracy. They can be unbelievably charitable, but their decisions and property acquisitions are so puzzling. They are nouveau, so to speak, with their newfound wealth having yet to withstand the test of time.
The new establishment is a metaphor that means anything is possible, even if impossible means being transported from university dorm rooms to tech-savvy mansions. And it is also a harsh reminder of the odd twists and turns of the times, that sometimes the ball can roll out of your hands, too. For the world, it ushers in a new era of a rising middle class whose access to unlimited social networking, promo fares, and sky-high credit limits can make the average person’s aspirations for nobility seem achievable. The new establishment can be anyone, capable of reaching the landed gentry and their thrones. Or so it seems. Because regardless of how fresh or affluent the new establishment may seem, one thing it probably cannot afford is the old establishment’s tradition and respect: two things that maintain stable ground in times of turmoil.
Wall Street started climbing back up by a margin in the second week of January. Things are looking up a little bit, but the fear remains. It’s just another week in the street’s history of highs and lows. The players may change but the rules are still the same. For the financial market and the world economy, the game may cost us a lot. And while Silicon Valley is hogging all the spotlight with all its glittering success, the truth is that it cannot be immune to the ups and downs of Wall Street. A few days ago, Apple stock prices dipped below $100. Both the street and the valley are still locked in each other’s embrace.
But oh, I haven’t even talked about Hollywood.
* * *
