Whether looking at a woman who needs close to $360 to pay her rent or a railroad that needs to be built, financial intermediaries are an economic necessity.…
Job Creators or Robber Barons?
I have confessed before that I admire the entrepreneurs who have been called the robber barons. Carnegie and steel, Rockefeller and oil, J.J. Hill and railroads, Morgan and money. These men and others…
The First Credit Default Swap
Some of the euro zone’s problems actually started with the Exxon Valdez oil spill. After the 1989 Exxon Valdez calamity, when an Alaska jury said that Exxon owed $5 billion in damages, they aske…
October Stock Markets
During October 1907, when the stock market crashed and the banking system panicked, we had no central monetary authority. We just had J.P. Morgan. “Why don’t you tell them what to do, Mr. …