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| Authors: Robert F. Bruner, Sean D. Carr
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $16.35
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 211
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 047015263X
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.9730911
EAN: 9780470152638
ASIN: 047015263X
Publication Date: August 31, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
 Panic of 1907 April 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A fascinating book with many parallels to the current crisis. We have no J. P. Morgan today.
 Proof of Empirical Elements April 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The authors developed a systematic way to look at business cycles or what causes a panic which they explain broadly in the beginning. A historical narrative of 1907 proves to be very entertaining while brilliantly highlighting the seven elements of a panic they preface with before they conclude with a more in depth look at those elements. Highly recommended for those who enjoy economic history and business cycles.
There are still lessons to be learned from this important but too often ignored event April 12, 2008
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
You should never take at face value the claims and declarations of politicians, public relations people, or journalists about the state of the economy. What you are being told is too often self-serving, manipulative, or ignorant. Remember that I said "at face value" because the truth is probably out there, but you will have to dig to find it. History is a good place to dig because in the hands of a careful historian or reporter, the distance of time provides some perspective, the facts are more fully known, and the events can be seen in the context of similar events. The danger is always to judge the past by what happened afterwards as if the people at the time had some knowledge about the path they were heading down with anything more than hope and guesswork.
The banking industry in the United States has suffered from periodic panics throughout its history. Much of this had to do with the fragmented and local nature of the institutions and how a real or imagined crisis can start a small fire in one bank that spreads as depositors and investors rush to try and recover their savings before the bank fails. Much of this has to do with the fact that banks are highly leveraged institutions. That is, they loan out the same dollars multiple times for businesses, to buy homes, and other purchases. We all benefit from this. However, if all depositors want their deposits at the same time, there simply is not enough to go around and the bank will quickly collapse without access to other capital. This ready access to a supply of sufficient capital is called liquidity and in earlier times without a federal bank there was no standard mechanism ready to supply it.
While some disagree, it seems clear to me that our present economic difficulties would be far worse without the Federal Reserve, some bank regulation (we have too much), and some level of deposit insurance. None of this existed in 1907. The San Francisco Earthquake and subsequent fire was so costly that it damaged the global economy. The following year there was a series of events that nearly wrecked the national economy. We don't talk about 1907 much nowadays, but it was this panic that led to the founding of the Federal Reserve and other banking reforms.
This very interesting book by Robert Bruner and Sean Carr takes us through the events of the post earthquake economy that also suffered from the attacks on big corporations by Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive administration. The panic was set off by the disastrous attempt by Otto Heinze to corner the copper market and short squeeze the speculators he just knew were out there, and the tsunami that spread out from the failure of United Copper to banking and trading interests. The relationship of these events to the institutions involved is told in a clear and lively way.
The story of this important period centers on the personal credibility and financial power of one man, J.P. Morgan. He knew what to do and had the personal clout to get others to follow him and do what he told them needed to be done. Another man was also important to this event, but is only touched on in this book. When the crisis was threatening to veer out of control, John D. Rockefeller put up $10 million cash and $40 million more in credit for Morgan to use as needed to stem the tide. Until Morgan and all involved were able to calm the financial seas it was unclear how far the contagion of fear would spread, but it was far from certain that Morgan could pull it off. He worked tirelessly and thank heavens the others had the wisdom to cooperate with him and each other.
I think this is a very interesting and useful book that provides information that can instruct us even in today's very different world, where some underlying principles remain the same but are too often ignored.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Makes Financial History Exciting March 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As dramatic narrative, well-written financial history competes with military history as a page turner and The Panic of 1907 is well written. The events of the Fall of 1907 have always been known - the failed stock market corner, the trust companies closing shop one by one by one, JP Morgan locking the city's bankers in his library until they come up with a plan - but this is the first modern, and best, recounting of the story. In the past, you had to cope either with Morgan-centric chapters in the recent biographies of JP, archaic hagiographies like Frederick Lewis Allen or even more primitive conspiracy theories by the likes of Matthew Josephson. It is high time that there is a history of the event itself.
The book is designed for novices - there is a glossary which spells out many basic concepts with which anyone with any background in economics will be familiar - but there is enough detail that a student of the panic will learn something new. There are a few annoying errors - Herbert Hoover was hardly a conservative: much of the original New Deal was his legislative package which had been blocked by a Democratic Congress - but that doesn't detract from the achievement of the authors.
Great Read! February 18, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Had lots of good details for the financial professional community, and also great human interest brought in to keep it interesting. It didn't go overboard with a bias one way or the other, since it refrained from drawing conclusions about the current financial problems. Instead it simply presented the history and let the reader come to his own conclusions. [...]
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