(Reuters) - MF Global fired all 1,066 of its brokerage employees on Friday, triggering anger and resentment about the firm's collapse after bad bets on European debt under former CEO Jon Corzine's leadership.
How the final blow was delivered upset many staff -- with some learning by email and others through news on the television.
"Fifteen years and no severance!" shouted one angry MF Global employee as he left the firm's offices on 5th Avenue in Manhattan after hugging the receptionist and doorman.
The trustee in charge of liquidating the brokerage said in a statement that the workers were let go immediately, though they will be paid through November 15 and up to 200 will be rehired to help with the wind-down.
The timing couldn't be worse for the employees. Not only is the U.S. unemployment rate at 9 percent, other Wall Street firms have been firing staff in recent months as trading profits decline and tighter regulation takes hold.
"The lives of so many people have been disrupted. We did not even get told individually, we got a group email," said MF Global analyst Pierre-Yvan Desparois outside MF Global offices in Manhattan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/11/us-mfglobal-employees-idUSTRE7AA4Q720111111?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71
Gold rises 1.5 percent on Europe hopes, tracks S&P
(Reuters) - Gold rose 1.5 percent on Friday, tracking a Wall Street rally, as Italy pushed through austerity measures demanded by the European Union and a new Greece government fueled hopes that a euro zone sovereign debt meltdown could be averted.
Bullion notched its third consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since August, after Italian Senate passed a new budget law that cleared the way for a full approval of the fiscal package and the formation of an emergency government to replace that of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The metal -- a traditional safe haven which has recently taken to tracking riskier assets -- rose in tandem U.S. equities and the euro, as the S&P 500 soared around 2 percent, as former European Central Bank policymaker Lucas Papademos was sworn in as Greek prime minister with an aim to avert national bankruptcy.