This quote has been added to our May 22, 2009 “Great Quotations” blog entry, but it hits so close to home we repeat it here.
John Maynard Keynes, “A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.” Quoted by Michael Pomerleano and Andrew Sheng, “A Failure of Public Governance,” Financial Times Economists Forum, January 26, 2010. Original quotation from “The Consequences to the Banks of the Collapse of Money Values”, 1931.
There’s much for us to do if the financial services industry is to finally prove Keynes wrong.
Donald R. van Deventer
Kamakura Corporation
Honolulu, January 26, 2010