Prosperity reached almost embarrassing proportions for Wall Street during the bull markets of the past couple of years. As stock prices climbed and trading volume rose to unprecedented heights, brokerage commissions swelled to $5 billion a year, and six-figure in comes became commonplace among customers' men. Now the securities busi ness is mired in a painful recession. Caught between sharply rising costs and a sluggish volume of trading in the ner vous market, brokerage houses have closed scores of branch offices, laid off hundreds of workers and rushed into mergers to fight...
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