Business: Waxing & Waning

In the dark days of the 1933 bank holiday, President Roosevelt installed in the office of Comptroller of the Currency an inconspicuous lawyer named James Francis Thaddeus ("Jefty") O'Connor. Jefty did not know much about banking, as he readily admitted, but he had dabbled in enough other professions to give him a deft versatility. As a politician he was defeated for the North Dakota Governorship In 1920, but got into the Legislature. As a lawyer he was sharp enough to become the partner of William Gibbs McAdoo in California, where Jefty moved in...

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