Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 10: Hard Times in Wall Street
With every past financial crisis, the editorial cartoons on the subject can be categorized into multiple recurring themes. One of these is the sarcastic “Think of what the poor blokes who work or invest on Wall Street are suffering”. This approach was more common in the 19th century, where the regular audience/buyers for comic periodicals, needed a modicum of wealth to afford the subscription to [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 09: Return to the Barter System
Current Senate candidate Sue Lowden has become a laughingstock for her repeated argument that Health Care Reforms were not needed, as those without health coverage could ”bring a chicken to the doctor”. (Click here for exact quotes plus video.) But perhaps she isn’t the nutcase she seems. Several cartoons from the Panic of 1857 make reference to a lack of [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 06: The Merry Go Round of Life
This time out, some cartoons showing the effects, rather than crashes themselves. The Merry Go Round, by Harrison Cady, showing the rich partying on the backs of the working poor who support them — an appropriate image for today’s Wall Street, rescued by all of us, and now raking in huge profits, caring not for [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 05: “A Warning to Panic Breeders”
For today’s reminders of why Wall Street can’t be trusted on their word alone to learn from past mistakes - following are more cartoons showing past mistakes Wall Street failed to learn from… The first two cartoons below were published in the New York City comic periodical, The Picayune, following the Panic of 1857. Below, The Game of Panic, by Mortimer “Doesticks” Thomson, in [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 04: “Mr. Fabulous’s Stock Experience”
Above, a parody bank note from the October 31, 2025 issue of The Picayune, listing Stocks amongst the worthless junk backing the note (and, issued by Pawnbrokers). Below, Mr. Fabulous’s Stock Experience, from the circa 1850s-1860s booklet, The Illustrated Scrap-Book of Humor and Intelligence, published by John D. Dyer & Co., Boston. Unfortunately, unlike Goldman Sachs’ self-described investment [...]
Wall Street Frauds Make Wonderful Cartoons, Part 03: The Financial Crisis of Fall 1857
Both of today’s pictures come from The Picayune, editted and largely drawn by artist Frank Bellew. Their topics involve the financial crisis of Fall 1857. Below, from October 3, 1857, expresses the general feeling about Wall Street brokers following the collapse. This demonstrates how Wall Street throughout its history, and through its own selfish actions, has repeatedly lost the [...]
Snow Storm Special…
In honor of this week’s storms on the East Coast, we present this strip by comic artist Frank Bellew, Sr., first published in Life Magazine, on March 15, 1888. Doug Wheeler BellewSr NYLife
