“PLEASE SIR, CAN I have some more,” whine the Oliver Twists on Wall Street. More interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy committee, a bigger portion of stimulus from the president and Congress, more direct relief for the housing market, a bail-out of bond insurers–you name it, and investors and bankers want more of it. Except for write-downs: the increased recognition of losses that nervous auditors are demanding is the one thing the bankers don’t want any more of piled onto their plates.

This desire for more doesn’t result from any recent period of deprivation: year-end bonuses, although frequently paid in bank shares rather than cash, have been relatively generous. Rather, it is that toilers in the financial services sector see lean times ahead, with the current round of lay-offs accelerating, and the value of their homes, especially second homes, dropping.