How one banker bailed out the United States

In November 1907, J.P. Morgan held the bankers of Wall Street in his private library in New York, by several accounts behind a door he had locked himself, until the trust company presidents agreed to a $25 million rescue. America had no central bank. During the Panic of 1907, a 70-year-old private banker was the Federal Reserve. The Panic of 1907 started at the trust companies, lenders that took deposits like banks but played by looser rules, the shadow banks of their day. From the failed United Copper corner and the run on the Knickerbocker Trust to sixteen minutes that saved the Stock Exchange, the locked library, Jekyll Island and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the private credit funds that limited withdrawals in 2026. 00:00 Introduction 00:50 A Nation Without a Central Bank 03:18 The Copper Corner 05:09 The Run on Fifth Avenue 07:37 Sixteen Minutes on Wall Street 09:53 The Locked Library 12:30 Never Again One Man 14:42 The New Trust Companies If your fund said you could only take out 5%, would you get in line? Tell me in the comments. #panicof1907 #jpmorgan #financialhistory