Wall Street Depression Takes Another Life
The New York Post reports that 47-year old Kevin Bell jumped from a 9th floor kitchen window at the Apthorp building located on West End Avenue near West 79th Street in New York this morning. Bell was a financial company executive who left a note saying he was depressed.
“The family [wife and 2 daughters] is hysterical. He was under a lot of meds. He did not give a specific reason why he jumped, but he was depressed,” a source told the Post
Like many who work on Wall Street, Bell, was a graduate of Duke University. He was the head of credit risk at Arrowgrass Capital Partners, which according to Zero Hedge, “focuses on strategies including corporate distressed assets in the U.S. and Europe.” Bell, according to his Linkedin page, previously worked at Saba Capital Management, Citadel Investment group, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
A year ago, ZH wondered “Why Are So Many Bankers Committing Suicide?” Whether there is some conspiracy, no one knows. Perhaps world markets are on the edge of crashing and those on the inside know it and don't want to be around for the carnage. Or perhaps it’s as simple as Jared Dillian explains in this video clip promoting his book Street Freak: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers, "For someone who has bipolar disorder, being on the trading floor is the absolute worst place to be, because no one's going to notice that anything's wrong, because everybody is crazy."
I write in this review of Dillian’s book, “Dillian's weaknesses overtake him. He attempts suicide unsuccessfully and later on exits the trading floor suddenly, checking himself into a psychiatric hospital. He emerges medicated but healthier, bolstered by the insight that he can write.”
Dr. Paul Zak contends traders are very rational, while Dillian writes that to get anything done on Wall Street you have to not only act irrationally but also be insane: "Only insane people do exactly the opposite of what common sense tells you to do."
Dillian discovered his love of writing and pens The Daily Dirtnap. Sadly Mr. Bell found nothing to live for.
