>Does this mean that all those traders who get the big bonuses and
>then spend them by bidding up NYC area real estate prices will be
>gone? Or is it that there really aren't that many of them that will
>be effected.
>
>What's it mean for the city is what I am getting at.
Depends. It may mean further dispersion of finance out of New York, but more in a marginal than a profound way. To use the old jargon, the guys "upstairs" (at trading desks in brokerages and such) will keep at it - it's only the "downstairs" folks on the floor of the NYSE (specialists, floor traders, etc.) will be gone. As I recall, the pop of the NYSE floor is around 3,000 - you could fit 'em all into a couple of rush-hour subway trains.
Doug