The Banker's Life

Moore is a retired Citibank chairman from Hannibal, Mo., who went to Yale on scholarship, left with $10,000 cash from extracurricular enterprises and entered New York banking in the 1920s, when bank officers could borrow freely to finance daily stock profits. He chronicles his rise to the top and offers plenty of inside scoops on New Deal banking reforms after the '29 crash, the adroit use of bank holding companies and inflation-financed war economy. Moore also lends ideas for an industrial comeback, dealing with foreign asset problems in Russia and China, developing Citicorp's international branch network and new kinds of worldwide banking. This personal history makes clear how capital in the form of credit spins the wheels of industry, commerce and the world economy. In discussing his retirement activities, Moore, now 81, writes that he remains active on the Metropolitan Opera board, as trustee of the Onassis interests in America and in promoting a port authority in Spain. (May 26)