Midwestern Mom Sends Wall Street a Message by Plane
This afternoon, the administrator of the American Banker Twitter feed spotted what, even in New York City, constitutes a startling sight: An airplane buzzing past the Lower Manhattan office of S&P--which recently downgraded America's credit rating--and pulling a banner that read, "THANKS FOR THE DOWNGRADE. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED." The New York Observer and other outlets asked readers to help identify the person behind the aerial outrage. Here is a closer look at the photo above:
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When Fortune's Dan Primack finally tracked down the person who paid to fly the banner, he learned that she actually was trying to send a message to Wall Street and Washington, not S&P. The anonymous Midwestern broker told Primack that she diverted the plane to New York when she learned she couldn't fly it over DC. "I chose Wall Street instead, but didn't specifically intend it to fly over S&P," she noted. "I'm just a mother from St. Louis who feels the only reason we got downgraded was people in politics." The Observer learns that the woman is a single mother of two from St. Louis and an investment banker. A friend tells the paper that the woman "woke up pissed about everything in Washington, especially now with the downgrade," adding, "She called me up to have me talk her out of it, and of course, I didn't because I think it's funnier than shit."
