Wall Street to the Rescue of Mamdani

Record profits this year on Wall Street could be coming to the rescue for Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his fiscal improvidence. Yet New York’s tilt toward socialism risks chasing away the profitable companies — and high earners — in the finance sector that the profligate mayor has to thank for the reprieve. That’s the upshot of a new analysis by New York’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, who projects this year on Wall Street profits to the tune of $90 billion.“Wall Street is on pace for a far stronger year than anticipated,” Mr. DiNapoli reports, as profits surge to nearly $46 billion in the first six months of 2026, an increase of 51 percent over the same period in 2025. Last year, by contrast, the finance sector generated some $65 billion in profits, a record. The profits for the first six months of 2026, Mr. DiNapoli adds, already exceed the city’s estimate of Wall Street’s earnings for the whole year.The comptroller credits “a boom in artificial intelligence spending, increased merger and acquisition activity, and elevated trading volumes amid market volatility” for the record-setting profits. The finance sector’s resilience, he adds, comes “despite geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.” Absent what he calls “a recession or major market disruption,” Wall Street’s strong profits are likely to “provide an important boost to state and city revenue.”This point is underscored by the level of employment on Wall Street reaching what Mr. DiNapoli calls “a record high” for 2026. He anticipates, too, “the 2026 bonus pool to increase.” That contrasts, he says, “with the city’s projection of a 20 percent decline.” The record profits could help New York bridge its multi-billion-dollar fiscal deficit, the product of Hizzoner’s refusal to trim the city’s bloated budget.The finance sector’s largesse, as the City Reporter puts it, “lifts the state budget, where 20 percent of all revenue comes from Wall Street.” The securities industry, too, “provides 9 percent of all city tax revenue,” per the Reporter, “and when the state budget is flush, Albany can send more money to the city.” Governor Kathy Hochul has already done so this year, and if the Wall Street profits boost revenues further, one anticipates more dollars could be on the way. There’s a dissonance, to be sure, in the prosperity generated by Wall Street — the quintessence of free-market American capitalism — helping to spare New York’s Marxist mayor from the consequences of his harmful economic policies. The emerging question is how long this will last. High-earning New Yorkers are already fleeing for lower-tax jurisdictions. The Empire State ranks last in the nation, the Tax Foundation cautions, in tax competitiveness. The Citizens Budget Commission warns, too, that New York is the highest-taxing state in America. It’s no wonder that the nonpartisan Empire Center is out with a new survey finding that 67 percent of New Yorkers “say they are not getting good value for their tax dollars,” and 64 percent back eliminating the state’s income tax. The GOP candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman, is vowing to drastically scale back that tax. Mr. Mamdani and Mrs. Hochul have already rushed through an ill-advised, unvetted pied-à-terre tax on New Yorkers, and the mayor has mooted raising taxes on high earners. The opening of a new stock exchange at Dallas underlines the risk of finance firms decamping from Wall Street for Texas, which has no income tax. Wall Street’s bailout of Mr. Mamdani’s socialist policies could prove short-lived if New York persists in its high-tax folly.

Wall Street to the Rescue of Mamdani

Wall Street to the Rescue of Mamdani

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