For members of Kappa Beta Phi, an exclusive, secretive Wall Street fraternity, plunging stock prices, the waves of layoffs and bank failures have yielded a dividend in punch lines.

"I feel like the mayor of New Orleans after Katrina," quipped Alfred E. Smith IV, the group's leader, or "Grand Swipe," at the opening of its annual black-tie dinner last week. "Today, the FBI put out a warning that Al Qaeda was planning an attack to cripple the U.S. economy," inductee Martin Gruss joked later in the evening. "I've got news for...