Ms. Siebert: We've changed our business a couple of times. Originally when I bought the seat and started out, I was a research analyst following institutions. And then we were what I would call an institutional broker. When discount commissions were announced, I went discount the first day it was legal and stopped doing research. That was May 1975. I had made the stock exchange coed on Dec. 28, 1967. That was what I would call the start of it. And then I went to the state. Governor Carey had called me, and he said, "I made a commitment to hire women, and I want a woman as Superintendent of Banks. And yours is the only name that keeps coming back." So I put my firm into a blind trust and went off to the state. I had shaken hands originally for two and a half years but stayed five years, as we had problems with the savings banks and I saved the industry. What we did was, if you remember, we had 8.5% usury ceiling and the banks owned the mortgages that paid 8.5%. But when President Reagan came in, the rates went up to 10%, 12%, 20%. Under the state constitution, when a savings bank reduces its capital because of losses, the Superintendent must take possession of the bank, declare it insolvent and sell the assets. That's why I stayed five years. The problems were there and I couldn't run.
I saw great cooperation - I mean, it was beautiful. We passed the laws in Washington that enabled FDIC to give us paper, and we passed the laws in New York that enabled the banks to take that paper and count it as capital. We took the paper and one by one, I merged five banks. I set the tone, and then I said, "Now I can leave." But I saw a cooperation, which I wish I saw in Washington today. I believe today we have partisan hatred. When I had this problem, I took the numbers to Governor Carey. He looked at them, and he said, "That's a $100 billion problem." Now this is going back over 20 years ago. He said, "We don't have a $100 billion." He said, "There is nothing we can do about it, you have to do what is right." And that was tough. He said, "But I hired this bright guy. His name was Barney Carroll, and he is number two in New York's Washington office." He had just graduated from law school. He said, "He knows New York because he has worked in New York, in Albany, during the summer." So Barney Carroll looked at it and said, "When Rockefeller went to Washington, he took his administrative assistant. Rockefeller died and his administrative assistant went to work for Senator Baker. Baker had hired him." He said we should take these numbers to him, he would understand it. So we did that, and he said, "I want you to come back next week, talk to Senator Baker. I want you to come back on Tuesday, that's when he sees me." So we went to see Senator Baker, and he said, "Who are you seeing next?" And I said, "I am seeing Senator Proxmire." He was the Democratic head of the Senate Banking Committee, and we went to see all three. Proxmire always used to call me "Madam Superintendent" or "Ms. Siebert." I walked down the hall from Baker's office and there was Proxmire holding the door open, saying, "I understand we have problems, come on in." They worked together and they passed the laws, which enabled us to do what had to be done. I wish I could see that happening today instead of this hatred. So that's where I picked up the banner, and I ran for office, lost and came back to my firm. I was away from my firm for about five years. And that's where I've been ever since.
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