What does all this diffusion mean for New York's economy? Potentially, a great deal. Steve Malanga, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, estimates that there are 175,000 securities-industry jobs in New York, which pay an average wage of $350,000. The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation notes that the securities industry accounts for 4.7 percent of the jobs in New York City but 20.7 percent of the wages. But the impact is even larger, since the spending of Wall Street hotshots supports a huge number of other jobs. Between 1995 and 2005, the sector grew at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent in New York and provided more than a third of business income-tax revenues, according to McKinsey. "There's no doubt that much of the financial and fiscal and economic revival of the city in the 1990s and then again after 9/11 can be attributed to the health and in fact dominance of Wall Street internationally," Malanga says. A long-term decline, in which the financial-services business slowly moves offshore or out of state over a period of years, would certainly inflict great damage. Without a manufacturing base, New York would become more dependent on its other large sectors like tourism, health care, government and education, none of which possess Wall Street's capacity for spinning enormous profits.

It seems inevitable that we will see many more studies about the loss of New York's status. Unless they can persuade Congress to stop globalization and the free flow of capital around the globe, there isn't much New York's billionaire financiers can do to stop the city's relative decline.

Oh, the irony!

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.