Wealth & Money Quote by Bill Janklow

A politician’s most revealing tell is when he drops the polite euphemisms and reaches for the blunt mechanics of power. Janklow’s line does that with almost accidental candor: he frames Citibank’s “ability” not as innovation but as permission. The key phrase is “reverse the arbitrage,” jargon that sounds technical enough to anesthetize scrutiny, then he yanks the mask off: “the ability to give themselves a profit.” In other words, the trick isn’t smarter banking; it’s rewriting the rules so the house can win.

The intent reads as explanatory, even justificatory, but the subtext is darker: banks didn’t just survive because they were resilient; they survived because they were allowed to manufacture survivability. “That saved the bank” turns profit into a life raft, hinting at an implicit threat: without this engineered margin, the institution collapses, and everyone else is expected to accept whatever legal or regulatory contortion is required to prevent that collapse.

Context matters because “arbitrage” is a word that carries moral camouflage. It suggests cleverness, efficiency, markets smoothing themselves out. Janklow punctures that mythology by describing arbitrage as something a major bank can flip at will, a lever pulled by insiders once they secure the right structure, the right exemption, the right deal. The rhetorical force is in its plainness: a rare moment when the public story (stability, confidence, the system) is translated into the private one (profit by design).