Note to biz reporters: Stop trying to kill off Wall Street

Yvette Kantrow, the executive editor of The Deal, writes about how the media often tries to kill off Wall Street, with a recent cover story in New York magazine being the latest example of a story that just won’t die.

Kantrow writes, “Every few years, when the economic cycle turns, the media serves up stories bemoaning the death-of-Wall-Street-as-we-know-it.

“To qualify as a true example of the genre, these carefully crafted, anecdote-heavy pieces must contain tales of laid-off or bonus-deprived bankers or traders struggling to maintain lavish lifestyles and questioning why anyone with a brain would ever choose to work on Wall Street again.

“Occasionally, these articles contain an image or factoid that remains lodged in the popular culture long after the cycle has turned, like the angry Goldman, Sachs & Co. banker in New York magazine’s 1995 story who sent his briefcase home to Connecticut in a limo at the firm’s expense. But at their most basic level, these stories are stuffed mostly with recession-era clichés and dire predictions of how Wall Street will never be the same again. Never. Ever.

“The latest example came in New York magazine, which, given its readership’s proximity to and economic dependence on Wall Street, seems to have an affinity for this stuff. ‘The Emasculation of Wall Street’ screamed its Feb. 13 cover, which also sported a photograph of a suited man with his hands placed protectively over his private parts.”

Read more here.