Further proof of how some things never seem to change. Wall Street — Fishing for Suckers Near the Maelstrom, by artist Thomas Worth, has long been one of my favorite Judge magazine cartoons. It appeared as the centerspread of Judge’s twelfth issue, January 14, 1882. Following is commentary appearing on page 2 of that issue - words that ring even more powerfully now, having had nearly 130 years of proving themselves true:

Wall Street Fishermen.



"The fishermen of Wall Street must be an exceedingly interesting party to all mankind, and Mr. Worth presents a sketch of them engaged in their favorite pastime. Queer poles and bait they use, but then it is all true. They find in the stream plenty of weak-minded fish (suckers) that greedily snap at the tempting bait, and when the catch has been strung up and sold the fishermen build for themselves lordly mansions and have much purple and fine linen about the house. Surrounded by all the luxuries that money can command, it may be wondered whether they ever pause in their stock-jobbing thoughts to ponder over the wrecks they have made among the men and women who have been drawn into their nets. But Vanderbilt, Gould, Sage, Field, and those who come after them on Wall Street, will, however, continue to fish and succeed in catching nearly all there is in the stream to the end of time. The fishermen will now and then tumble into deep water and get drowned, but men will take their places and fish will bite forever."

Click on picture — you’ll miss out on the details if you don’t!

Click here to find both the prior Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons entries, and related I.T.C.H. posts. This series will continue, while the debate on financial reforms continues in Congress (except Mondays and holidays, on which I already had other material planned).

Series Refrain: Bank frauds and Wall Street swindles, resulting in economic ruin for everyone else, were regular and frequent occurrences prior to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s institution of laws designed to prevent further Great Depressions. These regulations worked until, starting in the 1980s, conservatives began dismantling those protections, stating that we’d be better off with an unfettered and unregulated market, free to do whatever it wants. Wall Street firms swore at that time, that they’d learned the lessons of the Great Depression, and could be trusted to not engage in dangerous practices.

Bull****!

If there is one lesson from the various economic collapses throughout history, it’s that human greed is eternal. There will always be selfish fools, who grab for themselves without care for the damage they inflict on others.

Doug Wheeler

financial reform

JudgeMag