On that chapter on Risk Takers…you got to put something in there about Richard Davis from US BanCorp. The NY Post called him the Golden Boy of Banking, and rightly so. Recently he gave a speech in Minnesota right near the Occupy Minneapolis site and he gave a great pep talk to the business folk over there. What you have to admire about Richard is his ability to speak the truth without spin. He said, “Everybody is breaking the rules, blah blah blah… lack of confidence, lack of clarity about the future are no reasons not to invest, get over it.”
First of all rules are made to be broken, especially when there is a lot of money to be made. But more importantly Richard saw that people cannot let a little crisis hiccup get in the way of going further into debt. People need to borrow more because more is always better. That hiccup didn’t bother him.

When they were laying off workers, tightening their belts and the really desperate were walking away from their mortgages what does Richard do? this great risk taker took a chance and accepted $6.5 Billion from TARP and at same time was borrowing $5 Billion through the Fed’s back door bailout program. Genius! He knew The truth that in the modern financial system if you are too big to fail there is no risk at all.

And that is why he is the Golden Boy of Banking.