Stagecoach Economics

What's Good for the Banks Is Good for the Country.
-- Henry Gatewood

AND now, for something completely different. I never saw John Ford's 1939 film "Stagecoach." I thought it was "just a Western." Well, no, it's a morality play masquerading as a Western. I come to it via Krugman here, who comes to it by Digby here, & blogger Jerry Kutner here.

What struck them all was the character of the banker Henry Gatewood. He appears early in the film when he declares, "What's good for the banks is good for the country." Not much later, Gatewood steals $50,000 -- the payroll for the local mining company, which arrives in a Wells Fargo strongbox on the Wells Fargo stagecoach. (Sounds familiar already, doesn't it?) Gatewood stuffs the payroll money in a valise & takes the stagecoach out of town. Along the way, Gatewood says of the soldiers: "Always gives me great pride in my country when I see such fighting men in the U.S. Army." He later complains they're not doing enough to protect him.

What caught the attention of Krugman, Digby & Kutner is, as Krugman puts it, a "speech by Jamie Dimon the corrupt, embezzling banker who is the real villain of the piece," a speech Gatewood delivers with the valise full of stolen money on his lap:

I don’t know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they’re even talking now about having bank examiners. As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books.

I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

The speech begins at 33:57 into the video. You might want to watch the entire film (if you do, supersize it), which presents stock Western characters in a nuanced, complex light -- all except the banker Gatewood, that is. As Kutner says,

All of the characters riding inside Ford’s STAGECOACH are transformed by the experience – class prejudices are dissolved, the prostitute recovers her innocence, the doctor recovers his dignity, the meek man discovers his courage.  All of the characters change, that is, except for one - banker Gatewood who remains as obnoxious, hypocritical, and self-serving at the end of his journey as he was at the beginning.