Calling J.P. Morgan (He was more effective than Paulson and Bernanke combined)

Opinion Journal (of The Wall Street Journal) ^ | September 29, 2008 | L. Gordon Crovitz

[VOA]

In the fall of 1907, it took J.P. Morgan just eight weeks to
resolve a credit crisis similar to ours. Several years of
buoyant growth and too much risk-taking in poorly understood
investments led to needs for capital that could not be met.
Morgan, then 70, locked the nation's top bankers into the
ornate library at his home for late-night confession sessions.
He asked them to lay bare their balance sheets, keeping himself
alert with endless Havana cigars.

snip

We also seem to have forgotten a basic point well known to
Morgan, who would have recalled the panics of 1837, 1857, 1873
and 1897: Until prices are established, credit panics will
not end and financial firms will remain frozen. The lesson of
previous credit crises is that the sooner new valuations
are set for bank assets and liabilities, the sooner recovery begins.

[VOA]

This is an excerpt from an article in today's "Opinion Journal";
it appeared in the editorial section of The Wall Street Journal.

[VOA]

A nice historical note...about the times when the captains of industry
fixed their problems.

Instead of waiting for Speaker Pelosi to bail them out.

(Not saying it was a better world than the one we live in...
but some things did work better!)

[AmericaUnited]

Instead of waiting for Speaker Pelosi to bail them out.

We have an air brain woman (Pelosi) and an ignorant queer (Barney), leading the effort on solving this great country's financial crisis. Just mindboggling beyond belief!

[kitkat]

Yes, but Morgan was dealing with bankers, and they knew the amount of their assets and debts. Today, we’re dealing with government-funded organizations, thanks to Carter and Clinton. If Carter and Clinton hadn’t imposed socialist rules, we’d be free of this whole problem.

[VR-21]

Excellent post, thanks.

[VOA]

“
If Carter and Clinton hadn’t imposed socialist rules,
we’d be free of this whole problem.
“

Precisely.
I posted the article partly to point out that in some ways our financial
culture has DE-volved! (thanks to some nutty social engineering with a
vision dicatating that everyone should own a big house...
even if they can’t pay a mortgage on even the most kindly terms!!!)

[unixfox]

We have an air brain woman (Pelosi) and an ignorant queer (Barney), leading the effort on solving this great country's financial crisis.

Pretty much speaks for itself doesn't it. What's even worse is these people were elected by even dumber people.

[major-pelham]

Where are the great men of today ? We could use ole JP now.
Those in the position to know are making sweet deals to set their companies up for decades like the head of JP Morgan today (WaMu), the head of Citi today (Wachovia). But none of them are stepping up to the plate for the nation as Morgan once did. Too bad. We think of them pejoratively as Masters of the Universe, but it truly takes talent to rise that high. BS flies in Congress, but it doesn’t get you in the drivers seat at JP Morgan Chase.

[VOA]

Where are the great men of today ? We could use ole JP now.

JP Morgan (and most of those captains of industry) were no saints.

But heavens we could use some of them now.

Instead we get someone like Bill Gates making some of the worst
commercials ever. With or without Seinfeld.

And Buffet just hangs back and swings a hard-driven deal occassionally
(and there's nothing wrong with that).

It will be interesting if 10 years from now when things are mended
and (G-d-Willing) thriving again...if we do end up finding out
the identities of some unsung hero(s) that saved the day in
this current crisis.

[KingJaja]

We are no longer in the early twentieth century. It is disingenuous to suggest that what worked in the early twentieth century would work today.

The situation today is much more complicated than what obtained in JP’s days. We owe China and Japan huge amounts of money and the World financial system is extremely interconnected.

A modern corollary of JP’s meeting would be chaired by the governor of the Peoples Bank of China. Simply put, it would not happen.

[Zionist Conspirator]

In the fall of 1907, it took J.P. Morgan just eight weeks to resolve a credit crisis similar to ours.

J.P. Morgan? Oh yeah. According to the Birch Society, he was one of those wealthy nineteenth century robber baron capitalists who were "secretly behind Communism."

[Clemenza]

Yup. The Birchers claim that Morgan, Simon Warburg and JD Rockefeller Sr. and Jr. conspired to nationalize the credit system through the Federal Reserve and turn us into a Communist Country. That Red General Eisenhower only completed the process, and now we are run by the CFR and the Trilateral Commission.

[Arguendo]

Oh yeah, that one seems likely...

[VOA]

The situation today is much more complicated than what
obtained in JP’s days.

Of course it is.

I admit to putting this article up to let FR folks look at how
far we've come from a time when the destiny of The United States
of America was controlled...
By citizens of this republic.
Even if it was by robber-barons/Wall Street mavens.

IF this republic survives the current financial debacle...
maybe some influential folks will find a way to (at least in
an intermediate sense) return to something more like the days
of J.P. Morgan.

And reverse the trend of letting the country be controlled by
Communist China (OK, The Peoples Army).
And other pernicious influences outside AND inside the USA.

[montag813]

Paulson and Bernake wouldn’t have been fit to hold J.P. Morgan’s cheeks while he wiped his ass.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Yup. The Birchers claim that Morgan, Simon Warburg and JD Rockefeller Sr. and Jr. conspired to nationalize the credit system through the Federal Reserve and turn us into a Communist Country. That Red General Eisenhower only completed the process, and now we are run by the CFR and the Trilateral Commission.

I bet that Rockefeller actually wrote The Communist Manifesto! And since he was only eight years old, he must have been, not a human being, but hellspawn!

All kidding aside, kinda interesting how the rogues gallery of the John Birchers is identical to that of the socialist Populists of the late nineteenth century.