As Britain confronts the highest rate of unemployment in over a decade, the country’s financial center is suffering not just from a loss of jobs but of prestige, too.

Brokers at the New York Stock Exchange have come to personify the life-altering thing called Wall Street.

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, brokers have to bear the burden of having come to personify Wall St. — an all-encompassing name for the stock market, the economy, your 401(k).

Some brokers caught in the middle of the credit squeeze and stock market downturn are leaving the big institutions.

The retail brokerage firm Charles Schwab said Wednesday that third-quarter earnings fell sharply from a year earlier but beat analysts’ estimates.

An equities trader at the Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital lost the company about $10 million by placing unauthorized bets on the stock market just as it collapsed.

An equities trader at the Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital lost the company about $10 million by placing unauthorized bets on the stock market just as it collapsed.

Some analysts are concerned about a situation in which margin calls occur in larger numbers, causing an even bigger wave of selling.

On Wall Street, a black day is almost always followed by black humor in trading floor jokes, finance blogs, videos circulated on YouTube and doctored photos sent by e-mail between traders.

Christopher Cox said the voluntary supervisory program of Wall Street’s largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis and abruptly shut the program down.