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.
Investing isnβt risky; not being in control is risky.
Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth-grade math, you can do it.
Most women file for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious medical problem, a job loss, or a family break up. It is hard to protect against those.
Working for company X and having a substantial portion of your retirement plan in company X is simply exposing yourself to too much risk, because the company is both your employer and the source of your retirement income. So if something goes wrong, you lose both your job and your retirement plan.
The problem that people don't understand is that active managers, almost by definition, have to be poorly diversified. Otherwise, they're not really active. They have to make bets. What that means is there's a huge dispersion of outcomes that are totally consistent with just chance. There's no skill involved it. It's just good luck or bad luck.
The research indicates that when we women invest, we women do tend to be more patient, take a longer-term perspective and as a result of it, tend to be better investors than men. But the messages we get are that investing is sort of 'the guys' world.'
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