
Chasing Down History
Two storied American banks merged in 1955 to form a powerful financial institution.
Two storied American banks merged in 1955 to form a powerful financial institution.
What does the history of the New York City water system have to do with banking? You might be surprised.
There would be no hesitancy in 2020, when the pandemic closed the American economy. In just three months, the federal government has spent trillions to mitigate the economic distress.
The Spanish flu was inherently more lethal, and medical technology was far less advanced a century ago. But the flu, despite its severity, did not cause the American economy to implode.
In a breathtaking display of self-confidence, J.P. Morgan refilled the Treasury’s gold reserves and saved the monetary standard for four more decades.
Congress has sometimes shielded bankers from the consequences of bad policies. This has occasionally brought on disaster.
For five hours, she pleaded, she shouted and she threatened, while crowds out on Wall Street watched the drama through the bank’s big plate glass windows.
In 1954 bank architecture joined the 20th century, with a revolutionary bank branch at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
It was the Bank of England and the British national debt that made Great Britain a superpower.
An institution whose whole purpose had been to safeguard the money of the country’s poorest ended up destroying it.