Wall Street Panics As Socialist Set To Take Over New York, REITs Tumble At The Idiocy Of It All

On Wednesday morning, ground zero of global capitalism woke in a cold sweat from a nightmare that had previously made its way across the world countless times, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake… only to find out it was all too real: Wall Street will soon have a socialist mayor…. or as Trump put it, a „communist lunatic.”

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor shocked Wall Street, and pretty much everyone else including those Gen Zers who voted for him, who were then shocked to learn what socialism means after googling the term.

People in New York started Googling what Socialism was after the polls closed

Lol. Lmao even. pic.twitter.com/xqyerSgUhD

— Inverse Cramer (@CramerTracker) June 25, 2025

And with Polymarket putting the socialist’s odds of winning the final vote at 73%, Wall Street’s panic is completely justified.

As the WSJ reports, some of the world’s most influential and powerful financiers were left grasping to understand what Mamdani’s victory would mean for their industry, and whether when they would leave the city.

“It’s officially hot commie summer,” Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Cuomo backer, wrote on X.

It’s officially hot commie summer.

— Daniel S. Loeb (@DanielSLoeb1) June 25, 2025

Mamdani’s campaign was, up until a few weeks ago, a long shot. On Polymarket, which successfully predicted the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Cuomo had odds as high as 92.5% on May 27. Negative ads against Mamdani paid for by Wall Street-funded super political-action committees, as well as also-ran candidate Whitney Tilson, himself a failed investor and now selling get rich quick scams on CNBC and anyone else who will accept his ads, blanketed airwaves and filled residents’ mailboxes.

Mamdani’s platform includes sharply increasing taxes on those making more than $1 million a year, making the city „more affordable” by freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments, investing $70 billion in publicly subsidized housing (that’s $70 billion in other people’s money of course), providing free bus service and opening government-operated grocery stores (similar to the government operated grocery stores in 1985 USSR).

In his inimitable style, Matt Taibbi described Mamdani’s ascent as follows:

New York City’s mayoral race has been won by Zohran Mamdani, no Bernie Sanders-style imitator but the real thing — son of a famed socialist scholar and Marvel superhero to every Jacobin-reading, keffiyeh-wearing student activist huddled in Judean People’s Front-type confabs, between bell hooks readings and visits to Mom and Dad on the Upper West Side. In this country, it’s the most significant movement victory in a century, almost certainly presaging in the near future an epic clash at the summit of American politics between socialism and, well, anything else. As Michael Buffer would say, “Let’s get ready to rum-m-m-ble.”

As for his policies…

It’s a yummy pu-pu platter of rent freezes, free bus rides, free child care, and subsidized city-owned grocery stores that will “buy and sell at wholesale prices” and “centralize warehousing and distribution,” clamping down on those evil bodega owners and private supermarkets that force overpriced Fritos and soda on the poor. This will be the AOC theory of inflation caused by “price gouging” deployed in life, via a program to reverse ongoing harms of colonialism by liberating humans and non-human food animals from industry-driven food myths that compel us to harm our bodies, and — have you stabbed yourself in the face yet? ¡Viva la revolución!

Meanwhile, Cuomo’s lock on Wall Street was all but taken for granted. He had the loud backing from billionaire figures such as Bill Ackman, Loeb and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In the end, it wasn’t enough and on Tuesday night, Mamdani’s win became apparent immediately after polls closed: A nine-point lead in early votes held about steady as the day-of voting results came in. Cuomo conceded before the end of the night, leaving open questions of whether he will run in the general election in November.

But while trust fund socialists like this lot were delighted at the outcome – and why not, when NYC turns into a communist shithole they can just flee to their daddy’s mansion in Florida…

Young socialists go wild while celebrating Zohran Mamdani winning the NYC Mayoral Democratic Primary.

pic.twitter.com/xD7eaE6U5b

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 25, 2025

… Wall Street quickly started to worry: “There are a lot of warning signs flashing here. The next mayor here is going to have his hands full,” said Ed Skyler, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg, who is now an executive at Citigroup.

Some financial executives spoke to the WSJ of backing Mayor Eric Adams, who is expected to run in November election under party lines he created: “Safe&Affordable” and “EndAntiSemitism.” Financial titans had found Adams an early improvement from his predecessor Bill de Blasio.

Corporate leaders held a flurry of private phone calls to plot how to fight back against Mamdani’s primary victory and discussed backing an outside group with the goal of raising around $20 million to oppose him, according to people familiar with the matter.

The calls also discussed efforts to coalesce behind Adams and working to keep Cuomo out of the race, the people said. They also discussed trying to get Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, to drop out by getting the White House to offer him a job in the Trump administration, the people said.

Not everyone was downbeat about the primary results, though. On CNBC, Philippe Laffont, founder of hedge fund Coatue Management, said the city would likely continue to thrive, arguing that it withstood the tenure of disgraced corrupt socialist de Blasio, who embraced Marxist policies that many in the business community opposed.

“We had Mayor de Blasio for eight years, New York is really strong, I’m hopeful the same will happen,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And there’s still an election.”

Still, Mamdani’s wide support exposed how Wall Street has changed in recent decades. There were more individual donors from major banks to Mamdani than there were to Cuomo, according to city campaign-finance records where donors listed their employers. But many of them were among the increasingly large ranks of tech staff and other non-finance employees (read: foreigners). The WSJ found that three Goldman Sachs software engineers were listed as donating directly to Mamdani, for instance (most of them probably from India). Only one financier at Goldman publicly gave directly to Cuomo, according to the records.

Other bankers who quietly supported Mamdani wouldn’t talk to the Journal on the record. One tried to use a fake name.

The level of support for Cuomo among the moneyed set was so high that viral TikTok videos skewered the phenomenon in recent weeks, as Election Day neared. “You seem like such an alpha,” a woman says in one video to her fictional date with a finance bro. “So, you’re voting for Cuomo, right?”

Dating in NYC summed up wtf pic.twitter.com/v3R9937zTk

— Murray Hill Guy (@MurrayHillGuy1) June 25, 2025

But even with high support, Cuomo’s campaign lacked the kind of enthusiasm that rocketed Mamdani to his primary win, even among bankers and traders. “Confidence is a great trait, but it didn’t get his supporters out to vote,” Skyler said.

Wednesday, bankers and traders were trying to figure out the repercussions of a Mamdani mayoralty, should he win the general election.

Some voiced concern about Mamdani’s plan to freeze the rent of millions of New Yorkers who live in rent stabilized apartments, saying it would deter new investment in housing, reduce supply and push up prices for everyone else.

“I can’t believe I even need to say this, but socialism doesn’t work,” said Anthony Pompliano, CEO of Professional Capital Management, a bitcoin-focused financial services company. “It has failed in every American city it was tried.”

Then, there were renewed questions about whether the recent exodus from Wall Street to other states such as Florida and Texas would accelerate under Mamdani. Some executives cited concerns about taxes and crime under a potential Mamdani administration. Sander Gerber, chief executive of investment firm Hudson Bay Capital, said he fielded texts from some of his 170 employees who said they were “thinking of leaving.”

Just when you thought Palm Beach real estate couldn’t go any higher… https://t.co/FAUcV2OrYD

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) June 23, 2025

In a midday note from Goldman’s trading desk, the bank noted that its NYC Office REITs basket tumbled 430bps amid the „big focus on the back of Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani winning last night. Lot of inbounds on what this potential administration means for NYC exposed REITs, particularly across Office and Apartment REITs with exposure to NYC.”

Some developers and landlords said they are already making plans to exit New York and focus on more business-friendly markets like Miami, Dallas or Nashville.

“I’m depressed and sad,” said Ricky Sandler, who runs Eminence Capital, a Midtown Manhattan hedge fund, which employs 55 people. “If Mamdani becomes mayor, I will likely move my business and family out of New York.”

Last but not least, this tweet from Tyler Winklevoss lays it out best: it’s time to let New York burn.

A lot of people have asked me if I will get involved in the NYC mayor race by supporting a candidate that can defeat Zohran Mamdani. TBH, I’m torn and undecided. Like every other city run by democrats, NYC is a broken kleptocracy. Taxes are astronomical and services are pathetic…

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tyler) June 26, 2025