This is off topic, mostly, but tied in a little bit; I lived directly across the street from Wall St, on Broad St, in 2008 when the whole financial mess occurred. I never saw so many black limos and SUV's with govt plates coming and going in my life. Alos the look on peoples faces. The atmosphere in the area just felt different. For a short while, there were even military, or cops, but I think it was military, hard to tell with all the gear they had on, with machine guns and heavy soldier war like armor type outfits stationed outside for days and days, maybe even weeks, I can't recall for exactly how long.
Security to just get in and out of there with our cars was insane too. They actually had installed steel pistons that were about 2 to 3 feet wide and 5 feet high that went up and down; into the ground to allow a car to pass, and out of the ground to form a barrier that no car could pass. They would also check our trunks every time.