Mr. William Sutton was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1901.  There were five children in the Sutton family.  As soon as Mr. Sutton completed the eighth grade, he quit school and that was the last of his academic career.  We find that the records show that William Sutton departed this vale of tears in 1979 in Spring Hill, Florida.  If you were to conclude that Mr. Sutton had worked 45 or 50 years with the local gas company that earned him a pension, you would be mistaken.  If you also assumed that he moved to Florida as many New Yorkers do at retirement age, you would also be mistaken.  The fact is that when Mr. Sutton should have been in high school, he took up bank robbery as his profession.  The chances are that you will recognize Mr. Sutton when he is called by his proper newspaper name of “Willy ‘the Actor’ Sutton.”
Pursuing his trade as a bank robber, Willy Sutton tried to dress the part.  Sometimes he would appear as a policeman or as a mail carrier to complete his bank robbery.  At other times, it would be as a delivery person.  But one way or another, it is clear that Willy Sutton pursued his trade as a bank robber with some enthusiasm.  Mr. Sutton was not successful in avoiding arrests and spent a significant amount of time in prisons in Pennsylvania and in New York.  While in those prisons, he concocted schemes to escape.  In one escape, he used two nine-foot ladders to scale the prison walls.  The authorities in Pennsylvania and in New York concluded that Willy Sutton was committed to a life of crime and was incapable of rehabilitation.  In the end, he was sentenced to a life term plus another term of 30 years.  There is no record in that case that the judge offered Willy Sutton time off for good behavior, but another judge concluded that his sentence was too harsh, and permitted Mr. Sutton to go free.
While you may not believe that bank robbery and escape from prison is an honorable trade, Willy Sutton will live forever in American newspaper history because of a succinct answer that he gave to a reporter.  When he was asked, “Why do you always rob banks?” his answer went right to the point.  He said, “Because that’s where the money is.”  I wish that captains of industry in this country could apply logic as forcefully to their trades as Sutton did to his.
Willy Sutton made his remark shortly after he became a known bank robber.  It has stood as the gold standard ever since that time.  In the past few months, it appears that Willy Sutton’s dictum has been turned on its head.  Citizens go to the bank when they need a loan to buy a car.  The same is true when they need a mortgage.  However, these days the banks are turning away applicants for loans in great numbers.  Even citizens with sterling credit ratings are being turned away.  This is a mystifying situation in that banks make their profits by lending money to other banks and to individuals.  However, for the last four months banks have been very parsimonious with their loans.
From all I can hear in news reports, it appears that the banks’ conduct is based upon the thought that they will never be repaid.  Secondly there is also the belief voiced recently that financial institutions have not yet disclosed all of their toxic loans.  Last fall there was a $700 billion bailout for the banks, which is now largely dissipated.  The Obama administration is now talking about a stimulus package, something on the order of $800 billion.  May I say that these are Amos and Andy numbers.  I simply cannot comprehend them.
The government has given the banks cash by the carload, yet they will not make loans.  Until the loans are made, American commerce will not begin to flow again.  And until the loans are made, the depression that we entered some months ago will only deepen.  Banks have been given plenty of cash but they have neglected to lend it, which was its original purpose.  And until now, the administration has not forced these banks to do any such thing.  So the banks are sitting on the money that we have given them, and automobile dealers, for example, are going out of business because they need those loans to finance the purchase of automobiles that they can sell.  Something is terribly wrong when banks refuse to perform the function for which they were created.  I suppose that in the end it may well be that nationalization of the banks might be required to help this country back on its feet.
Perhaps there will be a day when your automatic teller machine will tell you that there is no cash to dispense.  Could we possibly reach the point that when I approach the teller at the bank that I patronize, I will be told that they admire the handwriting on the check but that they have no money to give me?  In the meantime, my bank as well as all the others is happy to accept your deposits, which I suppose are locked up in a safe never to be disposed as loans.
Smarter men than I ever hope to be have wrestled with this problem but have obviously produced no conclusions at this point in January of 2009.  If the banks have fouled up their work so badly in the past several years, it may be that only nationalization can put this country on the road to recovery.  If nationalizing the banks is the only solution, then let us have at it without the dithering of the Congress who have shown that they are basically incapable of helping with the problem.
But in the end, Willy Sutton’s dictum, that he robbed banks because that’s where the money is, has passed the test of time.  However, now it is obvious that it would be pointless to rob a bank because that is where the money isn’t.
Among his myriad problems, poor old Barack Obama is now afflicted with the dysfunction of the American banking system.  I have no expertise in financial matters but if I were asked my opinion on the subject of banking in the United States, I would have one thought.  It would be to buy a large mattress, one big enough to house currencies of all denominations.  In this post-Christmas season, mattress manufacturers are anxious to unload their stock in anticipation of the new models.  This would be a glorious time to buy a super king-size model that might carry us through the oncoming depression.  What we need now is another logician like Willy Sutton, who will tell us how to get by during the next few years.  But one thing is certain.  The last thing that a man ought to do is to take up bank robbery.  I am here to tell you that it is a dry hole.  The rewards are minimal and in the bargain you may find yourself in jail.
 
E. E. CARR
January 21, 2009
Essay 362
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Kevin’s commentary: There should be some sort of uber-rich batman type figure, breaks into banks, and steals everyone’s debt away from them.
But like, their personal debt, not the debt of the US treasury that they own in bits and pieces. Money is friggen weird.
Anyway I’m not familiar with this particular bank robber or how much cash sits in bank these days, but I sure as hell AM familiar with Nicolas Cage. I thought of him here because he starred in a 1993 film called “Amos and Andrew” which was a crime/comedy movie. I was briefly baffled as to why Pop was referencing it, but it turns out Amos ‘n’ Andy was a popular (get it? POPular) show in the 1920s-50s. Who knew?