Ken Langone: 'Banks Were Made The Scapegoats...Beaten Up Mercilessly, Unfairly'

The people at Wall Street Week were kind enough to share a preview of this Sunday’s show with Benzinga. The featured guest will be none other than the legendary billionaire investor and co-founder of Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD), Ken Langone.

Among other subjects, Langone went into the banking sector, explaining why investors shouldn’t own shares of small banks, and how he believes it’s a tragedy that banks have been turned into scapegoats.

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“The fact of the matter is, as I look at the world, America owns the world for the next – at least – 25 years. There’s going to be all kinds of people doing everything they can to screw it up – particularly the politicians,” he stated.

“You look right now at Dodd-Frank: Don’t own the stock of a small bank, because regulated the way it is now, it’s a regressive tax,” he added, explaining that the little bank still has to pay for regulation, whether it is making money or not.

On the other hand, big banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC), Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) or Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) have scope, the investor continued.

“I think the tragedy is how the banks were made the scapegoats. Go back and look at Barney Frank on a tape [...] preaching to the world of sort of an inherent right for every American to own a house, whether they can afford it [...] these guys will push [the banks] into that,” Langone concluded. “The banks, to me, are being beaten up mercilessly, unfairly.”

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