HIDE YOUR STATUS!

Remember back in the day when it was fun to flamboyantly flaunt your status by waving around a Gucci wallet and/or Rolex watch? It was an unspoken way to tell the world that you were a Wall Street hotshot.

Now with the economic downturn, the NY financial crew who still happens to be raking in the cash are experiencing something not unlike, survivor’s guilt. Those still making bank, are becoming closet spenders; keeping their high-rolling hush-hush not to offend cohorts who are losing their jobs and homes.

Though you want to feel proud of doing well during the meltdown, it becomes hard. You can’t really complain how expensive it is to fill your private jet with gas while others are selling off their flashy sports cars. It’s just not as fun to flaunt Prada when it doesn't make your peers at Lehman Brothers whose jobs are in jeopardy, jealous-- but just plain miserable. Thus that Louis Vuitton briefcase could be exchange for a gym bag; not out of poverty, but just out of plain guilt.

Even engagement parties are no long million dollar-sorted affairs on Greek Islands or the Waldorf Astoria, with the happy couple carved from ice as everyone dines on swan. To make everyone feel comfortable about their financial situation, it looks like; instead, it could be shooters down at TGI Fridays.

So I guess a positive upside to the economic crisis: less douche-baggery!