Wall Street

"Journalism was being whittled away by a Wall Street theory that profits can be maximized by minimizing the product."

"The president, the secretary of state, the businessman, the preacher, the vendor, the spies, the clients and managers—all walking around Wall Street like chickens with their heads cut off—rushing to escape bankruptcy—plotting to melt down the Statue of Liberty-to press more copper pennies—to breed more headless chickens—to put more feathers in their caps-medals, diplomas, stock certificates, honorary doctorates—eggs and eggs of headless chickens."

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

"Charlie and I cringe when we hear analysts talk admiringly about managements who always “make the numbers.” In truth, business is too unpredictable for the numbers always to be met. Inevitably, surprises occur. When they do, a CEO whose focus is centered on Wall Street will be tempted to make up the numbers."

"Hating Wall Street is an American tradition that dates back even to the days when Thomas Jefferson cursed that money lover Alexander Hamilton. And for centuries, the complaints about it have largely stayed the same: 'It does nothing! It creates chaos! It's a parasite that sucks hardworking Americans dry!'"

"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."

"Wall Street is where prophets tell us what will happen and profits tell us what did happen."

"Watch the walls come down, whether it's in the South or on Wall Street. When the walls come down, what do we find? More markets, more talent, more capital and growth. Which means that the race and sex discrimination stunt economic growth. It's not good for capitalism. It's not good for America's growth. And it's not morally right."

"Panic in Wall Street, brokers feeling melancholy. Good times coming. Good times have come. Listening to the strains of genuine negro ragtime, brokers forget their cares."

"The essential is the object. Error consists in forgetting that grain, cotton, wool are vital objects and in being interested in them only because of their value in gold, their speculative value. The economic purpose is not ‘to make millionaires out of gasoline’ but to distribute gasoline according to demand and need. Wall street is an abstraction."

"Wall Street is populated by a bunch of people whose primary goal is to make money, and the rules are pretty much caveat emptor."

"Wall Street, the banks, and corporate America, has been able to call the shots here. They control our members of Congress and they get what they want."

"I think of Wall Street guys as the crookedest in the world..."

"You know, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Congress regulates Wall Street. In truth that's not the case. The real truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress."

"The business model of Wall Street is fraud. In my view, there is no better example than the recently-exposed illegal behavior at ."

"Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America."

"Mutual funds are an overrated investment heavily promoted by Wall Street."

"The fall of Wall Street is for market fundamentalism what the fall of the Berlin Wall was for communism."

"Holding the citizens of Wall Street to the standards of honesty which govern everyone else is, if one thinks about it, the very opposite of class warfare."