'You Should All Be Fired': Mom Flies Banner Over Wall St.
A banner that soared above Wall St. was flown by a surprising complainant.
Aug. 10, 2011— -- A Midwestern mother and investment banker who was livid with Washington lawmakers paid for the banner that soared above Wall Street on Tuesday reading "Thanks for the Downgrade. You Should All Be Fired."
Lucy Nobbe, a single mother of two from Kirkwood, Mo., decided to have her rage flown in the face of Wall St. workers themselves when she hired a plane to tow the banner over downtown Manhattan, according to local station KSDK. She originally intended for the banner to soar over Washington, D.C., but discovered that there's a no-fly zone over the capital.
"I chose Wall Street instead, but didn't specifically intend it to fly over S&P. I'm just a mother from St. Louis who feels the only reason we got downgraded was people in politics," she told Fortune.
Check out the woman's angry banner here.
"I thought that is something that I could do that wouldn't cost a million dollars and maybe someone would listen to me," Nobbe told KSDK. She said she couldn't stop thinking about how angry she was with lawmakers over the debt-ceiling bickering.
She called the company flysigns.com which told her it wasn't possible to fly over Washington. "She asked me where would it be effective, and I said,'Let's take it to Wall Street,'" said Justin Jaye, who owns the LA-based company.
He said he backed Nobbe 100 percent and offered to do the job for $895 instead of the usual $1,200 to $1,500.
"Everybody supports what she's doing. We wanted to pitch in and make it affordable for her," Jaye said.
The reaction has been overwhelming, he said. He's flown thousands of banners in 20 years in the business, and "not one has struck a chord...as much as this one."
Nobbe's daughter, Holly, told the station she was glad to have a mom who stuck her neck out. "She definitely stands up, she is different than other moms, she stands up and I'm really proud of her," Holly said.
A friend told The Observer that Nobbe was not wealthy. "She's been working and paying taxes since she was 16 years old," the friend said.
The banner was first reported by an American banker who tweeted: "An airplane just buzzed past the S&P office in Lower Manhattan pulling a banner: 'Thanks for the downgrade. You should all be fired.'"