Back in 1907, America's financial system was pretty unsophisticated. There was no central bank, barely any kind of regulatory framework, and no backstop in case of a crash.
Meanwhile, the economy was growing fast, with people borrowing and investing at a dizzying rate. And when people lost confidence in a kind of unregulated lending institution called a trust, panic spread through the economy.
Fortunately, America had a secret weapon. An impeccably connected New York financier named John Pierpont Morgan. We visited his library to learn how the original J.P. Morgan saved the day.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.
Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
