(FORTUNE Magazine) – "The wind of change is blowing through the continent," said British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in a speech to the South African Parliament in 1960, "whether we like it or not."

Tell you what, Mac. We've got a pretty stiff breeze blowin' right now down on Wall Street too, if you know what I mean. You don't need to be one of those 50-year-old guys-who-worked-at-Lehman-Brothers-in-the-good-old-days to figure out that the worldwide financial firestorm is now hitting Wall Street full force. The seven-figure boys in the window offices are calling it an inflection point and talking about dislocation. While the guys in the trenches are guessing who's going to get the sack.

Wall Street these days is a tangle of rumors and tragedies large and small. Though these stories seem disparate, each contains a sign-of-the-times element. Allow me to point out a few of the obvious, and not so obvious, ones:

THREE IS A CROWD. (Or at least a trend!) So I'm sure you saw that Thom Weisel recently stepped down as head of Montgomery Securities. That didn't surprise anyone with an ear to the ground, because everyone knew there was major friction between Weisel's people and the capital markets guys at NationsBanc Montgomery. (We're talking Hugh McColl here!) But did you put it together that he's now the third head of a "HARM" (Hambrecht, Alex. Brown, Robbie Stephens, Montgomery Securities) to leave his firm after it was swallowed up by a biggie bank? Remember, last January Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard, the paramilitaristic CEO of Alex. Brown, left his new home at Bankers Trust for a job at the CIA. Probably a better fit there. And of course Sandy Robertson (Thom Weisel's old partner) jumped ship earlier this year after Robby Stephens was handed off (by its parent, BankAmerica, after its merger with NationsBank) to BankBoston like some sort of loaf of bread. What gives here? Well, we all recall when these deals were first announced, with the banks' CEOs saying they could buy 'n' assimilate these boutiques. Keep the entrepreneurism. Inspire and empower the managers. No problem, they said. No way, is more like it!

TURN THIS PLANE AROUND! AGAIN! You might have read in the New York Times a few weeks ago how Jamie Dimon, co-chair of Salomon Smith Barney, had to fly home from his August vacation in Europe after the market crashed on Aug. 31. He zipped back to rejoin his family once he realized the world was not going to end. Then, three weeks later, same thing. Dimon was en route to Hungary for a conference, when word came that his presence was requested at the Long Term Capital bailout. Again he came back posthaste. Wouldn't want to miss that show! What gives here? Even the big guys aren't having much fun right now.

FROM THE FRYING PAN TO THE FIRE. Speaking of big guys, did you see that Phil Duff, the former CFO of Morgan Stanley, left that firm to join Julian Robertson's mighty, mighty hedge fund, Tiger Management? Some on the Street speculate that Duff, considered a favorite of Morgan Stanley COO John Mack's, lost out in a power play between Mack and the firm's CEO, Philip Purcell. Maybe. Others say that Duff saw himself as a big fish in a small pond at Morgan Stanley before the Dean Witter merger. After the deal, though, he saw himself as a big fish in a big pond. In other words, now he would be vying not only with Morgan colleagues Peter Karches and Robert Scott to run the firm some day, but also with Dean Witter hands like John Schaefer and Mitchell Merin. Morgan Stanley declined to comment, but as one insider put it, "Better to lose Phil to our biggest client than a competitor."

LAYOFFS. Would the Carpenters' tune "We've Only Just Begun" be appropriate right now? What do we know so far? Well, Citicorp and Travelers will likely shed 8,000 jobs (true, many are because of their merger), but bet your sweet bippy that the nasty weather is swelling the head count. Also, Merrill has all but confirmed that it will cut a bunch of jobs soon. CIBC Oppenheimer reportedly dinged 27 in emerging-markets and fixed-income trading; ING Barings and Nikko Securities are rumored to have let people go from their bond desks. Reminds you of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."