Jay Gould Quotes
No man can control Wall Street. Wall Street is like the ocean. No man can govern it. It is too vast. Wall Street is full of eddies and currents. The thing to do is to watch them, to exercise a little common sense, and … to come out on top.
Klein, Maury. The Life and Legend of Jay Gould. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, p. 337.
Jobs led Apple when it became the technology company with the largest stock market valuation ever, yet he freely admitted that he did bit understand the market. He just ran a great company which produced wonderful, innovative products and paid relatively little attention to the stock market and Wall Street.
When the stock market crashed, the Board of Governors was entertaining the idea of putting a syndicate of banks together or back some financiers who would buy up the stock that people were trying to sell. There were those who wanted to sell but no buyers at any price. They concept of a market was being destroyed. Lamont correctly explained that the idea was not practical—it was too late for that. Lamont however had underestimated the market crash and made a feeble effort to assist President Hoover make his feeble effort to get the American economy going again.
The New York Stock Exchange had closed for the day after the assassination of President Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson called Funston to express his appreciation:
Jason Gould was an American railroad magnate and financial speculator who is generally identified as one of the Robber barons of the Gilded Age. His sharp and often unscrupulous business practices made him one of the wealthiest men of the late nineteenth century. Gould was an unpopular figure during his life and remains controversial.
