Sunday, March 19, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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As a boy, I spent many hours with my dad at his newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun.As I look back on those days, it was probably because my mother, as she said goodbye for the day, also said , “and take Brian with you!”
That’s when my lessons about newspapering began. They started in my father’s office, where I was consigned to a chair in the corner with the admonition, “sit there quietly and listen, that’s how you will learn.”
I wish I could remember the entire cast of characters who paraded through that office on a daily basis — every one of them with a story to tell or a need to be resolved.
He was right, I did learn. But where the understanding really took place was during those evenings when we walked home from the newspaper and passed the furniture stores that used to be on Main Street and the White Cross DrugStore on Oakey before we reached our house.
I was reminded of some of those early lessons last week when my wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to visit for a bit with President Joe Biden in Las Vegas.
Seeing Biden from time to time has been something we have done for almost 50 years — the first time I remember was when Art Marshall brought a newly elected U.S. senator to talk about the rise of antisemitism.
What’s that saying about the more things change, the more they stay the same? In this case, antisemitism is rocketing upwards in America, as are other forms of hate. The only thing that has changed since those earlier days in Las Vegas was a recently elected and now defeated president who celebrated hate and discord as a matter of political faith.
I remember two things my dad taught me about banks and bankers.
The first — which I am now convinced had a lot to do with his personal financial circumstances — was not to become one. As a newspaper guy, he knew that half the people loved him and half of them hated him. It was all part of the job and which half, he would explain, depended upon the time of day and the last editorial the people had read.
But, he would emphasize, nobody likes the town banker. How could they like the person to whom they owe so much money?
I realize he was adding emphasis to the lesson, which I have come to understand was his way of steering me away from any profession that required an understanding of a balance sheet. Somehow, even at my young age, he already knew my mathematical shortcomings.
The other and more important lesson was how to exercise the responsibilities of a newspaper publisher when it came to any negative stories about the local bank. One wrong word, one overemphasized fact pattern, one mistake could cause a run on the bank, which could, in turn, diminish the financial prospects of a growing community. It was a lesson I have taken to heart throughout my adult life as a publisher.
Last week, those two lessons from my youth merged in a way that made me grateful that Biden is leading the country as its president.
When the news broke that the Silicon Valley Bank in California was on its way out and others could soon follow, it didn’t take the news outlets long to scream the “hair-on-fire” headlines that helped cause a panic across the country and across the oceans.
All I heard were my father’s warnings about being extra careful when it came to stories about banks — for fear of causing a run that would drag them all down.
But when the president of the United States, a man of deliberative calm and decades of experience in these matters, announced the actions he had already ordered taken to protect the depositors’ money, the waters calmed just enough for the panic to recede.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t much more to do to avoid a needless destruction of banks around the world — because there is, and it is being done as we speak — but it does mean that when it comes to the banks, careful is better than careless.
As for the other lesson my dad tried to teach me, what also came through loud and clear was that for the bankers — the people who failed to manage their business and other people’s money properly — there was hardly a hint of concern for the economic losses that they personally incurred.
Once again, father knew best. And once again, Biden did his best to save Americans from a heartache they do not deserve.
P.S. I like my bankers.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
