The last time a J.P. Morgan helped solve an American banking crisis, it was the dude – John Pierpont Morgan himself – rather than the institution that now bears his name who had come to the rescue. That was during the Panic of 1907, when the nation’s near calamity but for the financial statesmanship of one man finally led Congress to institutionalize Morgan’s role with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
The reasoning here was quite obvious. Sure, it was laudable of Mr. Morgan to have stepped up to the proverbial plate and assist – for a profit – his nation in its hour of financial distress. But was that any way to run a republic – to leave it dependent on the good graces of one private sector individual who hadn’t had to help at all?
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