The Real Cost of Doing Business in NYC

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Think you understand how expensive New York City is? Think again. Beyond rent and taxes, there's a hidden cost of doing business: regulators acting like mob bosses.
In this episode:

• Real stories of NY bureaucrats shaking down small businesses.
• Why city departments operate like Don Finucci in The Godfather.
• Fines for paperwork violations, office “fire hazards,” and made-up infractions—just to wet their beaks.
• How contractors in NYC now budget six figures in expected fines before they even break ground.

This isn’t just bad policy. It’s legalized extortion—and it’s driving people and businesses out of New York in droves.
www.watchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Most people around the country, you don't understand. I have
no idea what the cost is of doing business in
New York. Most people don't even recognize that you have
to pay taxes, city taxes on top of federal taxes,
on top of state taxes in New York. Those are
the costs as well to New York City, Well, Department
of anything is the mafia essentially run just like the

(00:38):
mafia again Don Finucci godfather too reference again Don Finucci
walking around and wetting his peak. Let me have you
a couple examples of this. Our accounting arm Donafrio Incorporated,
used to have these demble offices in New York City
no longer. Let me tell you why. They said, the

(01:00):
various different regulators around to collect fines. Again, they collect
fines for nothing, literally for nothing. They went into the
accounting office and said that they didn't have their proper
degrees and certifications on the wall. They did They did,

(01:20):
and in fact, we knew it was coming. We actually
took pictures of this with a newspaper to prove when
they were up there. But they did to make it
a difference because when they came around to the accounting firm,
they did it during tax season. Now, the only way,
the only way you can make these fines go away
is you have to go down in person to dispute them,

(01:44):
and they say, hey, we'll just bang somebody out because
it's tax season. They're not going to have the time,
and they'll just pay the fine and then hey, that's it.
You know, we'll collect our money because they don't want
to deal with it. Well, yeah, that's that's how it operates.
And my contractor building apartments in a story in New York,
which is very close to Manhattan, one stop on the

(02:06):
subway train. Yeah, guys coming in all the time. Oh yeah,
your little makeshift office made out of plywood is a
fire hazard. You're going to have to put sheet rock
on it or guess what we're gonna you know, find
you you actually have to price in what contractors have

(02:26):
to do, they have to price in over one hundred
thousand dollars. This is my client friend does developer for
every project that he does, set aside over one hundred
thousand dollars. Assuming that they're just going to come down
and find something, that's how they operate. It is a mafia.

(02:47):
Why do business in a place like that. I don't know.
I know it makes makes no sense to me. And
what you're going to see happen to see happen is
a continued exodus out of the city. Watch ong on
Wall Street dot com.