Finance Essay Example

The Wall Street

‘’When Wall Street catches cold, the global financial market sneezes’’, such is the impact of the Wall Street on the world. Wall Street, although occupies only a small portion in the Manhattan area, but its clout extends worldwide. Wall Street is a collective term used for the numerous parties that are involved in the investment and financial industry of the United States. However, the impact of these parties is so large that any movement in the Wall Street affects the global financial system. The reason for such a magnified effect of the Wall Street is because it is the trading hub of the world’s biggest financial system. It is important to note that the United States accounts for 23.4% of the total global economic output and with market capitalization accounting for 36.3% of the total global market capitalization, it is justified as why Wall Street impacts the global financial system.
The world itself has been witness of such impact when during the latest financial crisis of 2008 that began with bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, fall in Wall Street stocks lead to corresponding decline in the stock market around the world. The greed of bankers and the so called 1% people got them nothing and not only the tumble in the wall street eroded trillions of dollars from the US financial system, other stock markets experienced the effect too. While the S&P 500 index fell by 9%, the European and Asian markets saw record decline in years too.
It was not the first time that such carnage was held by Wall Street. During 1929, what the world still remember 29th October as Black Tuesday, the US financial market lost $16 Billion in just one day and Dow Jones was down by 11.73%. Subsequently, European economies suffered badly, primarily, Germany which was relying heavily on US loans only.
In addition to above discussion, we can also say that Wall Street is the symbol of American Dream. Every individual or even a corporation who is willing to establish their presence in the United States look upto the Wall Street. Whether it be a young investor, a new listed company or even a young analyst, Wall Street has a lot to offer to everyone so as to fill the so called- American Dream of each and every one. As we already discussed that trillions of dollars are invested daily on Wall Street and with such big amount of trading, companies are sure that through sufficient amount of liquidity their objective of establishing in USA will be achieved. On the other side, young analyst, who came to US with golden dreams in their eyes, Wall Street not only offer them a handful of life-changing professional experience but also a lavish lifestlyle.
However, despite such an important contribution to the United States and also to the world(thinking of positive aspect), Wall Street has been criticized since a century now. Even in recent time, Occupy Wall Street was launched against Wall Street functioning with protestors carrying ‘’ We are the 99%’’ slogans to raise their protest against the greed of rich wall street guys that led to the financial crisis.

Works Cited

GRYNBAUM, Vikas Bajaj and MICHAEL M. For Stocks, Worst Single-Day Drop in Two Decades. 29 September 2008. 21 January 2015 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30markets.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
Picardo, Elvis. Why Wall Street Is A Key Player In The World's Economy. n.d. 21 January 2015 <http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100814/wall-streets-enduring-impact-economy.asp>.