OK, not just Wal-Mart moms with hungry babies are feeling the pinch of tough times. Naked Capitalism spots a Bloomberg News story reporting that “Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS AG and JPMorgan & Chase Co. are telling senior bankers in Asia to fly coach on short-haul flights and reduce non-essential travel as they step up cost cuts.”
Oh, the ignominy. Bankers, in middle seats, knocking elbows with the hoi polloi. That’s gotta hurt.
But don’t call the penny-pinching banking overseers irredeemably heartless. UBS instructed employees that the new rules only apply to flights shorter than five hours. So if you need to make a transoceanic hop, you can still be coddled in business class. The global economy might be hurting, but the wheels haven’t come completely off the bus.
