Public angry, anxious
Joel Miller of Boston summed up the anger and frustration of many Massachusetts residents yesterday as the $700 billion bank bailout plan unraveled amid political squabbling, sending stocks into a free-fall.
"Congress is acting like children," said Miller, an industrial real estate broker, as he walked out of a
A few blocks away, John Chambers of Canton said it was "scary" to watch the bailout fall apart.
"The market thought it was a done deal," said Chambers, a project manager for John Hancock insurance company. "And when they found it wasn't happening, they started selling."
Across the region yesterday, many people said they were following the events on Wall Street and Capitol Hill with mounting anxiety. Some cheered the House of Representatives' failure to pass the bank-rescue plan, while others called drastic government intervention a necessary evil. But most agreed that the economic crisis came about because of rampant Wall Street excess. And there was little sympathy for those at the helm of the financial shipwreck.
"I think the greed level has to come down," said Ann Greenberg, a Boston medical transcriber. Greenberg said she's being more careful about spending because of the financial crisis and the slowing economy. "What little I have, I'd like to keep," she said. "And I'd like to see the CEOs not walk away with millions of dollars."
In a Bank of America branch at the South Bay shopping center, a group of customers watched television reports about the financial bailout collapse and the market's 777-point plunge.
A bailout "may be a necessity, but I'm concerned that we're rewarding the people who put us in jeopardy," said James A. Smith, a property manager from Dorchester, who favors a limit on executive compensation. "Any bailout should protect the taxpayer."
"I know one thing for sure," Victor Thomas of Boston said. "These guys on Wall Street aren't our friends."
While regulators and bank officials across Massachusetts reported no unusual activity or high levels of withdrawals yesterday, many customers were seeking reassurance from bankers or financial advisers. Rick Ciolino, vice president and investment officer at Beverly National Bank, said worried investors have been calling to inquire about shifting money into federally insured investments.
"People are very nervous right now," Ciolino said. "They're worried about their money markets, as well as equity investments."
For many individual investors, the biggest question was how the worsening financial turbulence would affect their retirement savings. Others said they are concerned about keeping their jobs.
Richard Kazis, 56, of Brookline, sat at Logan International Airport yesterday checking the decline of the stock market on his laptop computer.
"I'm just watching my retirement disappear," Kazis said. "The closer you get to retirement, the scarier this all is."
In Burlington, Judy McGann, 55, an administrator at Caldwell Bank, blamed lax government regulators for the loss of value in her retirement account. "They got us into this mess, they should get us out," McGann said. "Most of us have some type of 401(k), stocks. It's affecting the economy, it affects my job and the security of my job."
Jeannie MacDonald, a former Boston bank employee, said, "I don't want to invest in the bailout. Our taxes are too high as it is. Food is too expensive. It's too much for the average working person."
But some tried to take a longer view amid the chaotic conditions - the market will eventually sort itself out, hit bottom and then rebound, they said.
"There has to be some pain and the market has to flush out all the weakness," said Miller, the Boston real estate broker. "But I still get up in the morning, I have my coffee and yogurt, and the real world doesn't look any different. And I haven't been hit yet by anybody jumping out of the Hancock building."
Kimberly Blanton, Meghan Irons, Ross Kerber, Lisa Kocian, and Kathy McCabe of the Globe staff, and correspondents Brad Kane and Erin Cahill contributed to this report.
Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com. 