Time & Perspective Quote by John Moody

Interest, for John Moody, is a weaponized word. He’s not saying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s books are dull; he’s telling you what actually matters in corporate America: who holds the leash. “Financial history” sounds like ledgers, rates, and dividends, but Moody narrows the frame to “changes in the control of the property,” treating everything else as secondary noise. It’s a businessman’s version of the old political line that budgets are moral documents: balance sheets are power documents.

The phrasing is deliberately bloodless. “Property” doesn’t just mean tracks and rolling stock; it’s the franchise, the right-of-way, the regional monopoly, the ability to set terms for shippers and towns. By focusing on “control,” Moody signals a world where value is less about operational romance (the railroad as national bloodstream) and more about governance: mergers, syndicates, boardroom coups, creditor pressure, and the quiet reallocation of authority from founders to financiers.

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were peak era for exactly that: consolidation, reorganizations after overbuilding, and the rise of investment banking as a steering mechanism. Moody’s intent reads like guidance to readers of early financial journalism: if you want to understand performance, don’t get hypnotized by yearly earnings. Watch the hands changing on the wheel. The subtext is almost cynical: “finance” is not a neutral record of success, it’s the paper trail of takeover and control.