WIST Quotations

Rogers, Will -- Column (1933-09-25), “Daily Telegram”

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2025 16:11:48 +0000

Talk of opening seven thousand closed banks. That will put over a half-million bank vice-presidents back on the payroll.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-09-25), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Collected.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1932-01-22), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Offers His View of the Federal Relief Bill” [No. 1715]

Dave — Fri, 23 May 2025 20:16:05 +0000

See where Congress passed a two billion dollar bill to relieve bankers’ mistakes and loan to new industries. You can always count on us helping those who have lost part of their fortune, but our whole history records nary a case where the loan was for the man who had absolutely nothing.
Our theory is to help those along who can get along even if they don’t get it.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1932-01-22), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Offers His View of the Federal Relief Bill” [No. 1715]
(Source)

Sent from London. Collected in Donald Day, ed., The Autobiography of Will Rogers, ch. 17 (1949)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1927-02-06), “Weekly Article”

Dave — Fri, 16 May 2025 17:09:28 +0000

If a bank fails in China, they behead the man at the top of it that was responsible. If one fails over here, we write the men up in the magazines as how: They started poor, worked hard, took advantage of their opportunities (and Depositors) and today they are rated as “up in the millions.” If we beheaded all of ours that were responsible for bank failures, we wouldn’t have enough people left to bury the heads.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1927-02-06), “Weekly Article”
(Source)

The idea that in China the leadership of banks that fail is executed pre-dates Rogers, e.g., 1893, 1908, 1922.

McEnery, Thornton -- “Jeffrey Epstein Should Be the Literal End of Deutshe Bank USA,” Above the Law (11 Jul 2019)

Dave — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 21:01:53 +0000

Large banks are essentially large children in search of candy, except the candy is profits. The only thing preventing them from grabbing all the candy and making themselves sick are laws and regulations. We cannot rely on them to act morally. It’s not their nature.

Thornton McEnery (contemp.) American business journalist
“Jeffrey Epstein Should Be the Literal End of Deutshe Bank USA,” Above the Law (11 Jul 2019)
(Source)

Stout, Rex -- Over My Dead Body, ch. 10 [Wolfe] (1940)

Dave — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:48:41 +0000

Don’t complicate matters by assuming for me a cupidity and corruption beyond the limits I have set for myself. You’re suffering from an occupational disease. When an international financier is confronted by a holdup man with a gun, he automatically hands over not only his money and jewelry but also his shirt and pants, because it doesn’t occur to him that a robber might draw the line somewhere.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Over My Dead Body, ch. 10 [Wolfe] (1940)