Wall Street Meltdown

You never know the timing of how these things pan out, but I've suspected that the financial markets have been operating on borrowed time for several years now.  It's not what I know, it's who I read, and I've been following Krugman, Roubini, Duncan Black, and Ritholz for a long time now.  There might be a full blown panic unfolding this week, but I've miscalled this before. 

We'll see how this shakes down to the architecture world, but my first thoughts are very dark indeed about this.  Clients almost always rely on credit markets to finance their construction, and I know that the clients we have now currently at the firm rely on the financial markets for their income.  I'm already hearing from friends from school who are looking for jobs now that the jobs out there have completely dried up.  I've heard of big layoffs at design firms in NYC. This wild ride could mean some frightening shake outs in the architecture job market.

And looking to Philadelphia, what proposals are out there that would be most threatened if the credit markets completely froze?  The American Commerce Center, with its ambitious spire really smells like it's dependent on a healthy office rental market and financing to meet its scale.  Walnut St Capital claims that it has secured its financing for this enormous project, but I'll speculate that enormous projects like this one might be most at risk in a rapid slowdown.