Have you been hearing the word "zombie" a lot lately? Me too. The imagery employed to explicate the banking crisis has taken a turn for the horrific. Zombie banks have been discussed far and wide. Although ex-IMF chief economist Simon Johnson uses temperate langauge on his blog, his suggestions have been characterized as "breaking the back" of or "decapitating" the banking elite.
*These figures alone will enable the economic historian of the future to describe the unhealthy prosperity of 1929 and the inevitable grief and suffering that followed in the succeeding years--grief and suffering that overwhelmed and carried away not merely the speculative gains of those who participated in the speculative debauch ... but eventually the operating profits of every business in the country no matter how unrelated to stock exchanges.
Sam Rayburn's introdution to H.R. Rep 73-1383, 73rd Cong. 2nd Sess. 1934, 1934 WL 1290
No comments:
Post a Comment