Wall Street's Recession: Growing Municipal Bond Mess Underscores Wall Street's Woes
{First of a Series}</br></br>W.J. Turner L. Cobden, a top municipal bond marketer at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., walked away about a year ago. "I'm glad to be away from all the turmoil," he says.</br></br>Now, the 58-year-old Mr. Cobden lives in Rhode Island, where he hopes to open a car-stereo store in a converted garage. It will be run by his son, who lost his own municipal bond job in 1987, when Oppenheimer & Co. trimmed almost one-third of its municipal staff.</br></br>Mr. Cobden's advice to those still in the business: "Make it quick and get out."</br></br>For much of the Roaring Eighties, a profligate Wall Street thumbed its nose at the woes of the Farm Belt, the rust belt and the Southwest's oil patch. But no longer. Eighteen months after the stock market crashed and ended the party, Wall Street is coming to grips with its own painful recession.