Gawking tourists flock to Wall St

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The Chinese were there too.
Tour guide Ying Wang had added the stock exchange to her 10-stronggroup's itinerary that included Times Square, the site of thedestroyed World Trade Centre, and Central Park.
'Everyone wants to see what's going on, what the place really lookslike,' Ms Wang said, waving a long toy flower to catch theattention of her excited flock, all clutching cameras.
The tourists and school groups come to witness history barelynoticed the tense, well-dressed figures flitting through thefinance district's dark, narrow streets.
These shock troops of the world's ruined financial capital cut asad sight.
'It's very scary. I feel numb, like I'm in a horrible nightmare,'said Rob, 39, an employee of giant insurance group AIG, which theUS government rescued from bankruptcy last month.
Mr 'Rob', who would not give his last name, said his last job hadbeen at Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that collapsed lastmonth, and that the pension he had been building up for 10 yearswas now worthless.
'If I could do it all again I'd do something less stressful, liketeaching math. Yeah, I like numbers, or I did until now,' he said,nursing a large take-away coffee.
Ms Patricia Cronin was on her way to the bank she'd worked at for27 years.
Her job, she said, was about to be axed.
'This is a major happening,' she said, 'this is very unsettling.There's a wide sweeping impact on the psyche, on home owners, onshare holders, on the ability to take decisions.'
Ms Cronin said that 20 to 30 of her friends were also about to losetheir jobs.
The crisis has rippled out to far more than financiers and curiousvisitors.
At Trinity Church, a landmark just off Wall Street, leafletsadvertised 'help in uncertain times.'
Counsellors were offering free sessions for those 'stressed oroverwhelmed financially, psychologically or spiritually.'
Another workshop was titled 'navigating career transitions'. 'Moreof the Wall Street people are coming in to church', said Ms RenataShrog, selling silver crosses and choral CDs in Trinity's giftshop.
'When times are bad, people come in. When life is good, they don'tthink about it, do they?'
Because this is New York, even Mr Philip Belpasso, the beardedbusker sitting under a lamp post by the stock exchange, had astrong - and remarkably informed - opinion.
'These companies spend so much money on their parties and goldenparachutes and so on, they're just not lean fighting machines. Theycan't take the slowdown. They're too fat,' Mr Belpasso said.
Mr Belpasso, dressed in a dirty army jacket, gloves, and a redbaseball cap marked USA, said the government's decision to boostinsurance for bank deposits was 'the kiss of death to the stockmarket'.
'If everything's insured in banks, then who would go and put theirmoney in stocks?'
As tourists' coins clinked into his box, joined by the occasionaldollar bill, Mr Belpasso said: 'I play Amazing Grace because I feelsorry for all the pain.' -- AFP