The only thing useful banks have invented in 20 years is the ATM.
Interpretation
Volcker critiques the banking industry's lack of innovation beyond the ATM in two decades.
In this quote, Paul Volcker expresses his disappointment with the banking sector, suggesting that it has stagnated in innovation over the last twenty years, with the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) being the only significant advancement during that period. This statement reflects a broader sentiment regarding the banking industry, where the focus may be more on maintaining traditional profit models rather than pursuing creative solutions that serve customer needs or drive economic progress.
In practice
During a financial conference, one might use this quote to highlight the need for more innovation in banking.
It is a sobering fact that the prominence of central banks in this century has coincided with a general tendency towards more inflation, not less. [I]f the overriding objective is price stability, we did better with the nineteenth-century gold standard and passive central banks, with currency boards, or even with 'free banking.' The truly unique power of a central bank, after all, is the power to create money, and ultimately the power to create is the power to destroy.
When I hear complaints about less liquidity, remember there is such a thing as too much liquidity.
What's the subject of life - to get rich? All of those fellows out there getting rich could be dancing around the real subject of life.
There is no more reason to believe that Bitcoin will stand the test of time than that governments will protect the value of government-created money, although Bitcoin is newer, and we always look at babies with hope.
You've got to tell your money what to do or it will leave.
In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.
Complexity and interconnectedness matter as much as size in assessing risk in banking.
We tend to focus on assets and forget about debts. Financial security requires facing up to the big picture: assets minus debts.
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