Original post by Dinesh Moorjani via Huff Post 

A flower has grown from the ashes of New York’s financial industry meltdown. That flower is the innovation economy of New York — and it’s here to stay.

Here’s why: Brain drain. For many years we have heard of brain drains. Over the past few decades, the best minds from around the world came to America from abroad seeking opportunities. The goal was simple: change the professional trajectory for themselves and their families.

Over the past few years, however, some of the best brains have left America to return to BRIC emerging markets — Brazil, Russia, India and China — where they have built new products and companies, inventing and adapting innovations to meet the needs of their local markets and beyond.

Now, we’re experiencing a local financial industry brain drain — one that doesn’t require entrepreneurs to cross an ocean, but just choose a new subway line.

Talent is shifting away from Wall Street to Chelsea, Flatiron, Fashion District, Midtown New York and other tech center hubs, and it’s the best thing that has happened to New York City in the two years. It’s happening both by circumstance and by choice.

Many of our country’s brightest minds, from engineers to economists, have applied their skills to reap financial gain on Wall Street. With its big entry-level salaries and promise of riches, America’s youth had built a career around trading and financial engineering to create, and in some cases, to harvest value via transactions.

While China expanded a robust manufacturing sector and India transplanted and replicated software and services innovations, America’s best and brightest were building new asset transactions and packaging and distributing risk. In essence, we as a nation have trained our best people to transact value instead of build value.

That is, until now.

Wall Street is contracting, continuing to cut its global workforce and it’s a surprising boon for the nation’s long-term prospects.

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