Roaring '80s Turn Grinding '90s

Despite the rising Dow, Wall Street's free ride is over

Poor Wall Street. In a slide that began with the stock-market crash 18 months ago, the get-rich-quick go-go years have faded into memory. No longer do brokerages open branches in every mall or freely lavish six-figure salaries on young talent. Gone are many of the yachts and the black-tie dinners -- along with more than 8% of the 260,000 employees who worked in the U.S. securities industry before the collapse. And despite the cost cutting, a fresh wave of gloom rolled through investment houses last week. Even as the Dow Jones industrial average surged 72.40 points to a post-crash high of...

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