Graydon Carter Quotes

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.

… clean up thoroughly unwholesome conditions in the field of investment. In this we have had assistance from many bankers and businessmen, most of whom recognize the past evils in the banking system, in the sale of securities, in the deliberate encouragement of stock gambling, in the sale of unsound mortgages and in many other ways in which the public lost billions of dollars. They saw that without changes in the policies and methods of investment there could be no recovery of public confidence in the security of savings.

We have solid financial institutions, but they lent very little. So with the financial reform, we wanted to push them to lend more and to encourage the development bank to create instruments for lending mainly for micro and medium-sized companies.

Banks hold deposits and savings entrusted to them by individuals, by businesses, by governments and by central banks. They put that money to work, helping people to buy homes, for example, or lending to businesses to invest in expansion.

Banks are very big lobbyists. There is a long history in this country of prohibiting companies not in banking to get into the banking business.

I do not dislike your bank any more than all banks.

Banks can’t put their money in the bank. They have to lend it out.

Mexico has very solid financial institutions, with good levels of capitalism, but they’re not lending much.

I had made a mistake in presuming that the self interests of the organizations of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.

We are optimistic with respect to thrifts .... I don't think that there is any cause for undue concern and I would reject any suggestion that we are in the midst of some sort of a major systemic problem with respect to any element of our financial services industry.

Separating out banks and investment banks right now under Glass-Steagall would have very big implications to the liquidity and the capital markets and banks being able to perform necessary lending.

Democrats are ready, willing, and able to provide regulatory relief for community banks and credit unions.

American business would be run better today if there was more alignment between CEOs' interest and the company. For example, would the financial crisis of 2008 have occurred if the CEO of Lehman and Morgan Stanley and Goldman and Citibank had to take a very small percentage of every mortgage-backed security... or every loan they made?

Commercial banks are very good for certain businesses, like loans and guarding other people's money. They're not great investors or entrepreneurs.

The business of a bank is to lend money; which amounts, nowadays, to lending credit.

Financial service providers act as the lubricating oil in the economy. They link consumers who want to invest their savings for a good return with companies who want to borrow on best terms for expansion.

Banks properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial.

We don't have sales trading, brokerage, capital lending - any of those kinds of things that got some of the Wall Street firms a little bit in trouble.

Financial institutions like to call what they do trading. Let's be honest. It's not trading; it's betting.

We need banks and financiers and entrepreneurs to take risks because that's how economies grow over time.

To get our economy back on track and keep it functioning properly without the problems of our financial institutions, we need reasonable regulations that will protect Main Street while at the same time allow Wall Street to do what it does best - make money for American investors.

Non-bank financial institutions provide credit that is essential to U.S. businesses and consumers.

No bank, banking association or trust company … shall have as a director or other officer or employee any private banker or any director or other officer or employee of any other bank, banking association, or trust company located in the same place

Credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.

The Commission concludes that the banking supervisors failed to adequately and proactively identify and police the weaknesses of the banks and thrifts or their poor corporate governance and risk management, often maintaining satisfactory ratings on institutions until just before their collapse. This failure was caused by many factors, including beliefs that regulation was unduly burdensome, that financial institutions were capable of self-regulation, and that regulators should not interfere with activities reported as profitable.