Yesterday, the Dow took a massive tumble—this morning it opened shabbily, based on bad new employment numbers. (Joblessness is back up to 6.1 percent!) And folks on Wall Street have now begun hearing that bonus season may be absolutely zero, zilch, nada. And, if you have visited America's cosmopolitan coastal cities, you will have seen that their skylines are dominated by cranes tied to half-finished high-rise buildings of luxury apartments. Now that the bankers aren't buying, because they're panicked, the real estate markets of big cities have been supported by foreigners buying up "cheap" properties while the dollar stagnates. That's worked well so far, even if it has induced a new kind of casual racism against the Irish. (It's true! Perfectly normal people walking on New York's Park Avenue South will talk about how everyone around them is from Ireland). But now, that party is ending. This could be it, kids! The big collapse!

The Real Deal reports that "foreign apartment buyers are disappearing from New York City." At least it's the European buyers mostly that are ditching out.

Over the last few months, Darren Sukenik, executive vice president of luxury sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that the ratio of buyers has shifted "from 60-40 foreign to 60-40 New Yorkers." And, the makeup of foreign buyers has changed.

As Europeans lose purchasing power, other nationalities are stepping up to take their places.

"All of the European countries, especially the United Kingdom, have tightened their belts," Sukenik said. "Emerging nations like Russia, the Baltic region, China and India, on the other hand, are spending like crazy."

Oh boy. INDIANS? In our cosmopolitan cities? The white boy prince-of-the-city types who still have jobs at Lehman Brothers—for now—are not going to like that. And while we'll miss the era of cosmopolitan spendiness and wealth that overran the coastal cities these last few years, well, at least some of us can get jobs consulting formerly rich people on how to live thriftily.