Excerpted from the Manhattan Spectrum:

The lesser known “bank stress test” was an informal polling of bank employees in New York City and across the Midwest.

The results were stark in the depth and severity of the terror currently burdening employees in the banking and financial fields.

One longevity-mortality derivatives trader at a bank that accepted TARP funds spoke of her ongoing panic on the condition of anonymity.

“It sucks.  My employer is basically bankrupt, so its just a matter of time before the company goes under or is, for all intents and purposes, taken over by the government.  That means no junkets to Vegas and the Caribbean and only bi-weekly dog grooming sessions for my weimeraner, Francis.”

“This is totally unacceptable.”