Rats! Is Wall Street actually sinking?

Rats should be the second-most-successful mammals in the world after humans, given their almost equal distribution across the planet. No one would seriously dispute that these two species also overlap when it comes to many characteristics. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of the most enduring urban myths is that in New York — a city that prizes many a gnawing murine and human quality — there are as many rats as there are people. Though a US pest control agency has recently ranked New York behind Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC when it comes to the highest resident rodent populations, it has been averred for a long time that no one in the Big Apple is ever more than 6 ft away from a rat. This proximity only serves to underline the companionability and complementarity between vermin and man.

Therefore, the contention in a doctoral thesis that there may be only two million rats to eight million New Yorkers presents a disturbing disequilibrium. Given the legendary propensity of rodents to desert the proverbial sinking ships, such an alarming reduction in their numbers in New York bodes ill for the financial and other hubs that keep the Big Apple afloat, metaphorically speaking. Will US Attorney Preet Bharara cite this as further evidence that his campaign for a Swachh Wall Street is succeeding?