100 Minds That Made the Market

Preface xvii

Acknowlegments xxi

Foreword xxiii

Introduction 1

CHAPTER ONE The Dinosaurs 7

MAYER AMSCHEL ROTHSCHILD
Out of the Ghetto and into the Limelight 10

NATHAN ROTHSCHILD
When Cash Became King—and Credit Became Prime Minister 13

STEPHEN GIRARD
The First Richest Man in America Financed Privateers 17

JOHN JACOB ASTOR
A One-Man Conglomeration 20

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT
A Man Above The Law 23

GEORGE PEABODY
A Finder of Financing and Financiers 26

JUNIUS SPENCER MORGAN
The Last of the Modern Manipulators 29

DANIEL DREW
Much “To Drew” About Nothing 32

JAY COOKE
Stick To Your Knitting 36

CHAPTER TWO Journalists and Authors 39

CHARLES DOW
His Last Name Says It All 41

EDWARD JONES
You Can’t Separate Rodgers and Hammerstein 44

THOMAS W. LAWSON
“Stock Exchange Gambling is the Hell of it All . . . ” 47

B.C. FORBES
He Made Financial Reporting Human 51

EDWIN LEFEVRE
You Couldn’t Separate His Facts from His Fiction 53

CLARENCE W. BARRON
A Heavyweight Journalist 56

BENJAMIN GRAHAM
The Father of Security Analysis 59

ARNOLD BERNHARD
The Elegance of Overview on a Single Page 63

LOUIS ENGEL
One Mind that Helped Make Millions More 67

CHAPTER THREE Investment Bankers and Brokers 71

AUGUST BELMONT
He Represented Europe’s Financial Stake in America 74

EMANUEL LEHMAN AND HIS SON PHILIP
Role Models For So ManyWall Street Firms 77

JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN
History’s Most Powerful Financier 80

JACOB H. SCHIFF
The Other Side of the Street 84

GEORGE W. PERKINS
He Left the Comfy House of Morgan to Ride a Bull Moose 87

JOHN PIERPONT “JACK” MORGAN, JR.
No One Ever Had Bigger Shoes to Fill 90

THOMAS LAMONT
The Beacon for a Whole Generation 94

CLARENCE D. DILLON
He Challenged Tradition and Symbolized the ChangingWorld 98

CHARLES E. MERRILL
The Thundering Herd Runs Amok in the Aisles of the Stock Market’s Supermarket 101

GERALD M. LOEB
The Father of Froth—He Knew the Lingo, Not the Logic 104

SIDNEY WEINBERG
The Role Model for Modern Investment Bankers 108

CHAPTER FOUR The Innovators 113

ELIAS JACKSON “LUCKY” BALDWIN
When You’re Lucky, You Can Go Your OwnWay 116

CHARLES T. YERKES
He Turned Politics into Monopolistic Power 120

THOMAS FORTUNE RYAN
America’s First Holding Company 123

RUSSELL SAGE
A Sage for all Seasons 126

ROGER W. BABSON
Innovative Statistician and NewsletterWriter 129

T. ROWE PRICE
Widely Known as the Father of Growth Stocks 133

FLOYD B. ODLUM
The Original Modern Corporate Raider 137

PAUL CABOT
The Father of Modern Investment Management 141

GEORGES DORIOT
The Father of Venture Capital 145

ROYAL LITTLE
The Father of Conglomerates 149

CHAPTER FIVE Bankers and Central Bankers 153

JOHN LAW
The Father of Central BankingWasn’t Very Fatherly 157

ALEXANDER HAMILTON
The Godfather of American Finance 161

NICHOLAS BIDDLE
A Civilized Man Could Not Beat a Buccaneer 164

JAMES STILLMAN
Psychic Heads America’s Largest Bank 167

FRANK A. VANDERLIP
A Role Model for AnyWall StreetWanna-Be 171

GEORGE F. BAKER
Looking Before Leaping Pays off 174

AMADEO P. GIANNINI
Taking the Pulse ofWall Street Out of New York 177

PAUL M. WARBURG
Founder and Critic of Modern American Central Banking 180

BENJAMIN STRONG
Had Strong Been Strong the Economy Might Have Been, Too 183

GEORGE L. HARRISON
No, This Isn’t the Guy From the Beatles 187

NATALIE SCHENK LAIMBEER
Wall Street’s First Notable Female Professional 190

CHARLES E. MITCHELL
The Piston of the Engine that Drove the Roaring 20s 192

ELISHA WALKER
America’s Greatest Bank Heist—Almost 195

ALBERT H. WIGGIN
Into the Cookie Jar 198

CHAPTER SIX New Deal Reformers 203

E.H.H. SIMMONS
One of the Seeds of Too Much Government 206

WINTHROP W. ALDRICH
A Blue Blood Who Saw Red 209

JOSEPH P. KENNEDY
Founding Chairman of the SEC 212

JAMES M. LANDIS
The Cop Who Ended Up in Jail 216

WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS
The Supreme Court Judge onWall Street? 220

CHAPTER SEVEN Crooks, Scandals, and Scalawags 225

CHARLES PONZI
The Ponzi Scheme 228

SAMUEL INSULL
He “Insullted”Wall Street and Paid the Price 231

IVAR KREUGER
He PlayedWith Matches and Got Burned 235

RICHARD WHITNEY
Wall Street’s Juiciest Scandal 239

MICHAEL J. MEEHAN
The First Guy Nailed by the SEC 243

LOWELL M. BIRRELL
The Last of the Great Modern Manipulators 246

WALTER F. TELLIER
The King of the Penny Stock Swindles 250

JERRY AND GERALD RE
A Few Bad Apples Can Ruin the Whole Barrel 254

CHAPTER EIGHT Technicians, Economists, and Other Costly Experts 257

WILLIAM P. HAMILTON
The First Practitioner of Technical Analysis 260

EVANGELINE ADAMS
By Watching the Heavens She Became a Star 263

ROBERT RHEA
He Transformed Theory into Practice 266

IRVING FISHER
TheWorld’s Greatest Economist of the 1920s, or Why You Shouldn’t Listen to Economists—Particularly Great Ones 270

WILLIAM D. GANN
Starry-Eyed Traders “Gann” an Angle Via Offbeat Guru 274

WESLEY CLAIR MITCHELL
Wall Street’s Father of Meaningful Data 278

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES
The Exception Proves the Rule I 281

R.N. ELLIOTT
Holy Grail or Quack? 285

EDSON GOULD
The Exception Proves the Rule II 289

JOHN MAGEE
Off the Top of the Charts 292

CHAPTER NINE Successful Speculators, Wheeler-Dealers, and Operators 295

JAY GOULD
Blood Drawn and Blood Spit—Gould or Ghoul-ed? 298

“DIAMOND” JIM BRADY
Lady LuckWas on His Side—Sometimes 302

WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT
He Proved His FatherWrong 305

JOHN W. GATES
What Can You Say About a Man Nicknamed “Bet-a-Million”? 308

EDWARD HARRIMAN
Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick 311

JAMES J. HILL
When Opportunity Knocks 314

JAMES R. KEENE
Not Good Enough for Gould, But Too Keen for Anyone Else 317

HENRY H. ROGERS
Wall Street’s Bluebeard: “Hoist the Jolly Roger!” 320

FISHER BROTHERS
Motortown Moguls 323

JOHN J. RASKOB
Pioneer of Consumer Finance 327

ARTHUR W. CUTTEN
Bully the Price, Then Cut’n Run 330

BERNARD E. “SELL ’EM BEN” SMITH
The Rich Chameleon 333

BERNARD BARUCH
HeWon and Lost, But Knew When to Quit 337

CHAPTER TEN Unsuccessful Speculators, Wheeler-Dealers, and Operators 341

JACOB LITTLE
The First to Do so Much 343

JAMES FISK
If You Knew Josie Like He Knew Josie, You’d Be Dead Too! 346

WILLIAM CRAPO DURANT
Half Visionary Builder, HalfWild Gambler 349

F. AUGUSTUS HEINZE
Burned by Burning the Candle at Both Ends 353

CHARLES W. MORSE
Slick and Cold as Ice, Everything He Touched . . . Melted 357

ORIS P. AND MANTIS J. VAN SWEARINGEN
He Who Lives by Leverage, Dies by Leverage 360

JESSE L. LIVERMORE
The Boy Plunger and Failed Man 364

CHAPTER ELEVEN Miscellaneous, But Not Extraneous 369

HETTY GREEN
The Witch’s Brew, or . . . It’s Not Easy Being Green 371

PATRICK BOLOGNA
The Easy Money—Isn’t 375

ROBERT R. YOUNG
And It’s Never Been the Same Since 378

CYRUS S. EATON
Quiet, Flexible, and Rich 381

Conclusion 385

Appendix 387

Index 419