Quotes about Banking Failure

Andrea Leadsom

If the government has any courage, it will punish those at the top of failed banks. Accountability is critical in every area of human endeavour - there has to be a penalty for failure; otherwise, it's only a matter of time before the economic pain our banks have caused to so many innocent businesses and homeowners is forgotten.

Ben Bernanke

Investment banks manage to go bankrupt through their investment-banking activities, commercial banks manage to go bankrupt through their commercial-banking activities.

Sean Quinn

I am not in the business of pointing fingers or making excuses. However, recent history has shown that I, like thousands of others in Ireland, incorrectly relied upon the persons who guided Anglo and who wrongfully sought to portray a 'blue chip' Irish banking sector.

Bertie Ahern

That decision will in history be written as the biggest mistake that American administration ever made, because Lehmans was a world investment bank. They had testicles everywhere.

When the Meltdown hit America, the crisis drew attention to the fiscal solvency and stability of banks in most of the world. The Irish banks were much more overextended than those of most counties and when that came to light there was a bank panic in Ireland. Ahern and the Irish Dail (parliament) decided to bail out the Irish bank at a very great cost to the rest of the Irish economy and people. He believed if Lehman Brothers had been bailed out, as America did with other institutions, the Irish bank bubble would not have burst. It is not known whether he actually meant to use the word “testicles” or he made a gaff intending to use the word “tentacles”. Both have relevant meaning in the situation with a significant shade of difference in meaning between the two.

Warren Buffett

I did not think I would see the day when, you know, an AIG would not be able to have its checks clear.

Alan Greenspan

Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief

Greenspan and some others assumed that the shareholders and the executives who ran the financial institutions had the same vested interests. But the executives had disconnected themselves from the fate of the shareholders, by having Golden Parachutes to protect the executives even if the business failed and they were fired. And they got their bonuses immediately so by the time the authorities and the shareholders discovered that the profits the bonuses were paid for were illusory, the bonus money was safely stored in a secret offshore bank. But if things went wrong, there was always the play of getting a government bailout which would keep the executives getting their huge bonuses and keep the shareholders from losing their money as the taxpayers covered most of the losses.

Jon Huntsman Jr.

Too big to fail is too big.

Jay Leno

The nation's largest savings and loan, Washington Mutual, has become the biggest bank failure in history. See, the problem with the savings and loans? Not enough savings, too many stupid loans, okay In fact, they changed their name from WaMu to 'screw you.'

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

My father invested his money so securely in the banking business that he was never able to get any of it out again.

Roger Altman

In September 2008, the overleveraged and undermanaged U.S. banking system suffered a terrifying collapse. And that, in turn, nearly took the whole country down.

Jean-Francois Cope

There has been a banking crisis, a financial crisis, an economic crisis, a social crisis, a geostrategic crisis and an environmental crisis. That's considerable in a country that's used to being protected.

Banking Failure Quotes