[by Larry Goldfarb]

The NYSE is closed.  For the NYSE, this is the first weather related closing in 22 years.  It took a storm named Sandy that moved north toward Newfoundland, but took an unprecedented hard left at Atlantic City.  The folks that live on the ocean are getting pummeled.  I live near the Hudson and the local restaurant has seen water breach a three foot sea wall. 

My first reaction to the closing of the NYSE was, “another nail in the coffin for human intervention and exchanges.”  But the fact is that the NYSE is almost entirely computerized. I assume the NYSE closed because lower Manhattan may be underwater at days end.  The many people whose work is contiguous with the opening of the NYSE are now allowed to ride out the storm at home with their families.  I imagine NASDAQ is closed for the same reason.

We can fantasize about computers running the world but in the end, the world is created for people.  We eat, we play, we sleep, we pray and we work.  The last 15 years had seem to diminish the importance of labor in the work force.  Companies seem to delight in laying off or slicing wages -- all because they can.  Politicians give jobs service because that is what the public wants.  But it took the NYSE and NASDAQ,  two almost fully automated firms, to announce that we operate for people, we are run by people and we respect people.  If that message is heard in the wake of the storm, all of the damage and possible loss of life would not be in vain.