"A Note on Economic Conditions in the United States"

From Michael Perelman at EconoSpeak, a quote from Keynes:

A note from a careful observer of US financial conditions, by Michael Perelman: [pg.] 569: "I fancy that the great New York (banking) institutions have more skeletons in their cupboards than anyone yet knows about for certain, and that their concealed anxieties cramp their action more than is admitted."

Keynes. 1930. "A Note on Economic Conditions in the United States: A Memorandum for the Economic Advisory Council." CW 20, pp. 561-94.

Comments

[Bernard Yomtov]

I think this is true of all banks, great and small. Breathes there a loan officer who does not have a few files stuffed into a special drawer, over which daily prayers are said?

[calmo]

Specifically New York?...yes, I believe so Bernard.
Specifically "skeletons" (and not merely cadavers or real live, but possibly elderly, advisers) in "cupboards" (not "drawers" as befits a papery document,--something a little more generous but not as large as a "closet").
..the witches and the brew, no?
This B infectious: Halloween warps the mind...we can't wait to put the costume on...again. Itz that 9-5 suiting that does it.
Right: the steely-eyed calculations are only a suit hiding anxieties that you know are going to burst open at any moment. Splains why bankers dress the way they do, no?

[Callahan]

At least they have something in their cupboards, mine are bare.

Poor UNPOOR me. Barely.