Pure speculation

I RECENTLY came across this quote from Sir Ernest Cassell (1852-1921) “As a young man I started to be successful and was known as a gambler. I increased the size of my operations and became known as a speculator.

“The spheres of my activities continued to expand and I am presently known as a banker. Actually, I have been doing the same thing all the time.”

I was reminded of this when the banks demanded from various spineless governments that “a wager” on the stock exchange, as it was always known until early in the 1900s, should be known as investing. “Gamblers” and “spineless” — nothing ever changes.