"Banks are unprofitable because they make too many bad loans and their good loans have little profit in them. They also have the dubious advantage of an awful set of accounting conventionsāāa rolling loan gathers no lossāāthat permits them to mask their mistakes and hold assets without marking their value to market. Spreads are narrow, costs are high and there is too much reliance on insured deposits, with the accompanying incentive to take risks with someone else's money."
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āSpeech on Banking Systems for the New York Times and Glass Steagall.". (1990)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_Rotberg
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Eugene Rotberg
Gene Rotberg (January 19, 1930 ā October 6, 2025) was an American lawyer and international investment banker and was an expert on risk taking, interest and exchange rates, financial market regulation, and the role of international development institutions. He served as vice president and treasurer of the World Bank from 1968 to 1987, responsible for overall funding and investment operations.
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