There's nowhere to go but down

The other day they were talking about how Connecticut's "Rodeo Drive" looks abandoned now that hedge fund managers' wives have a bit less money to spend. Today, word comes that business is booming at rehab centers due to too much "self-medication". What are the odds that these two developments are related? This report from Reuters has the details:

Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.

"We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff," said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.

"They're being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both."

Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.

When the owners of the "high-end boutiques" start seeking treatment for substance abuse, then you'll know we've about hit bottom.