Midas rejected such a policy as irresponsible. A banker does not own all of the money at his disposal at any given time; he owes an obligation to his depositors, as well as to any stockholders and partners he might have. A banker borrows short (by accepting money on deposit, money that a depositor may in theory withdraw on demand) and lends long (by making loans that are not always subject to instant recall and typically are made for a specified term). Such activity entails inherent risk, and this is why bankers typically require more [[interest]] (literally, a rent for money) than they pay to their depositors. Sadly, in the novel as is so often the case in real life, Midas Mulligan's critics never understood these realities, and continued to portray him as a mean-spirited, heartless [[money]] [[miser]].
== Hunsacker Amalgamated Service Co. v. Mulligan ==In March of 2011, Lee Hunsacker, who had had a very poor record as a businessman, sought a start-up loan and several other men formed the Amalgamated Service Company to finance his purchase and planned re-activation of activate the factory of the defunct [[Twentieth Century Motor Company]] in Starnesville, in the neighboring State of [[Wisconsin]]. Amalgamated Service applied to the Mulligan Bank for the capital loan to buy the factory. The Twentieth Century was a poor prospect to begin with. Though its founder, Gerald "Jed" Starnes, had built the company into a very successful firm, he had then died, and his heirs who took it over, ran it into the ground within four years. Midas Mulligan might not have known the full particulars of that company's history, but he would certainly know enough from his own investigation, as would be an elementary requirement of "[[due diligence]]."
The prior record of the company itself was less disquieting to Midas than was the business record of the man who now was trying to take the factory over and run itmen behind Amalgamated Service. Lee Hunsacker , in particular, had previously tried to run a company that made paper containers, but his customers had deserted him—and instead of examining his product to see how he might improve it to meet customer demand and expectation, he blamed the customers for "lack of cooperation."
Midas refused the loan. In his refusal, Mulligan told Hunsacker that his business record made him an extremely bad prospect for running a vegetable pushcart, much less a large factory that employed six thousand people. The men who were in partnership with Hunsacker other owners of Amalgamated Service did not impress Midas Mulligan much better.
Hunsacker, furious at the refusal, filed suit against Mulligan. He made a claim that the narrative describes as "discrimination." As nearly as a close read of the text reveals, Hunsacker alleged that he met the same qualifications for a business loan, including the required security, as did any other businessman, and Mulligan had no grounds to refuse.