Bonfire of the Vanities, 2008 edition

Via Andrew Leonard of How the World Works:

It’s a gift that keeps on giving — the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune suffered by the obscenely rich when they are on the wrong side of a financial markets hiccup. I just wonder how Reuters reporters Kristina Cooke and Chelsea Emery were able to restrain their schadenfreudic giggles when they obtained the following quotes from a luxury interior decorator in New York…

“We only had about $50,000 worth of final touches,” to go, “and the wife called me last week and said stop,” said an interior designer, Darren Henault, whose work has been featured in magazines like Vanity Fair and Elle Decor.

“She said that they’re not poor, and are never going to be poor,” Henault said, “but their capacity for discretionary income for things like window valances just went out the window.”

The woman in question is married to an executive of Bear-Stearns, so we can appreciate her angst, although comments about things going “out the window” should be considered in highly bad taste on Wall Street in the spring of 2008.

Almost identical to a scene from Tom Wolfe’s (excellent) novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, which really should be required reading for all Columbia students. Schadenfreudic giggles indeed.