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Wall Street: A History
Wall Street is is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is a chronicle of the street itself-from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant to the latest highs and lows. It is also an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world. The book traces many themes, like the move of industry and business westward in the early 19th century, the rise of the great Robber Barons, the growth of industry from the securities market's innovative financing of railroads, and Bell's and Edison's technical innovations. And because "The Street" has always been a breeding ground for outlandish characters, no history of the stock market would be complete without a look at the conniving of ruthless wheeler-dealers
and lesser known but influential rogues.
This updated edition covers the slow recovery following the lowest points of the Great Recession and the tensions of regulation. Geisst illustrates the cyclical nature of Wall Street as recent crises are strikingly reminiscent of past economic failings. As Wall Street and America have changed irrevocably after the crisis, Charles R. Geisst offers the definitive chronicle of the relationship between the two, and the challenges and successes it has fostered that have shaped our history.
and lesser known but influential rogues.
This updated edition covers the slow recovery following the lowest points of the Great Recession and the tensions of regulation. Geisst illustrates the cyclical nature of Wall Street as recent crises are strikingly reminiscent of past economic failings. As Wall Street and America have changed irrevocably after the crisis, Charles R. Geisst offers the definitive chronicle of the relationship between the two, and the challenges and successes it has fostered that have shaped our history.
- GenresEconomics
584 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 26, 2019
A little dry (more so in some parts than others) but an extremely comprehensive and helpful (I think) history of this important sector of the economy from ~1790-2010.
May 2, 2019
Wall Street: A History walks readers through the up and down story of Wall Street. Starting with Wall Street’s infancy, the book clumsily attempts to use a narrative format to convey how the U.S. stock and bond markets both shaped and were shaped by the historical arc of the United States. Author Charles R. Geisst utilizes at times confusing syntax and frequently writes economic anecdotes which unfold in a fashion likely to maintain the interest of only the most committed of readers.
Stories rich in narrative potential, such as Jay Gould’s efforts to corner the gold market in the 1870s, are somehow rendered less thrilling by the manner in which Geisst composes his work.. Though some of this shortcoming could have been smoothed over or outright eliminated by a more effective editor, it still robs Wall Street: A History of much of its ability to hook readers. Dishonest men like Gould would be joined a few centuries later on by the likes of Michael Milken, whose exploits in financial chicanery at Drexel, Burnham, Lambert demonstrated that greed is confined to no particular industry or century.
Much of the book focuses on the larger than life men who assisted in the evolution of the country’s economy. Tales of high flyers whose lavish beginnings do not end well begin early: the Washington administration is still in its first term when William Duer goes belly up and lands in debtors’ prison. He has the implosion of financial speculations backed by borrowed money to thank for this, and not even Alexander Hamilton's interventions can long save him from his fate.
U.S. financial markets were still literally operating on the curbside in New York City at the time of Duer’s unwinding. Stock and bond trading was still largely confined to Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The Duer debacle crystallized the need for the young country to have a better organized trading center, bringing about the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement. A deal between auctioneers and dealers, this pact formalized things elements along the lines of more uniform commissions for traders.
Geisst's book spends many pages explaining how sharp minds on Wall Street created financial instruments to (in theory) make sectors of the economy run more effectively, delving into how the current system we have today was molded and shaped.
It deserves credit for keeping the story focused strictly on economic matters, only mentioning wars and scandals in relation to how they impacted the U.S. economy.
The Morgan family name (starting with J.P.) is a common thread running throughout Wall Street, with the fortunes associated with that dynasty dovetailing with various epochs in the economy. According to Wall Street: A History, “Morgan’s influence on the creation of corporate America was as strong as that of many inventors and entrepeneurs on their own businesses. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he had a domination position in railroads, life insurance, steel, and electricity, in addition to banking. Of all his activities, his role in the formation of U.S. Steel Corporation and the General Electric Company were perhaps the biggest feathers in his hat.”
The lack of a Federal Reserve system prior to the twentieth century underscored the periodic importance of deep-pocketed tycoons in preventing the stock market (and the U.S. government’s finances) from falling into disarray or outright collapsing. 1857, 1869-, 1873, and 1893 saw financial panics (potent economic downturns), with Wall Street firms essentially stepping in due to the lack of a central bank. Andrew Jackson’s role in preventing the renewal of the B.U.S.’s charter in the 1830s-and the battle against bank president Nicholas Biddle precipitated by the western president’s opposition to central banks-receives surprisingly scant attention. As evidenced by the numerous panics in the eighty years before central banking in the form of the Federal Reserve was reinstituted, the impact of this destruction very well might have set back U.S. economic development from what it otherwise might have been. This even set off a terrible panic in 1837 which torpedoed the van Buren administration and badly damaged the U.S.’s economic credibility on the world stage.
The importance of the railroads in the country’s economic development, and the manner in which the building of them brought foreign investment capital into the country, is the subject of a chapter preceding a look at the age of the so-called robber barons. This era dovetails with the U.S. government's battle against the money trusts as the nineteenth century morphs into the twentieth.
The 1930s and the reforms wrought by the New Deal consume a detail-rich chunk of the book. Geisst never tips his hand with regard to where he falls on an ideological spectrum, going to great lengths to avoid taking one side or another in past economic policy debates.
During the Great Depression section Geisst merely explains how the New Dealers changed regulation of Wall Street and the motivations which lay behind their desire to do so. He makes the argument that beginning in the 1950s-with a respite, strangely enough, during the Nixon administration-the nation quickly moved away from the regulatory mindset of the New Deal era and toward more of an era of deregulation. Again, he does not editorialize on whether this transformation was good or bad; both the good and bad outcomes resulting from strong regulations and the repealing of a lot of that framework are dutifully reported.
This book comes out to be more than the sum of its parts. Many of the paragraphs are poorly written and could have used at least one more rewrite, yet it is clear Geisst did his due diligence in digging up various Wall Street-related anecdotal pearls. Readers will learn a lot from it, but it almost qualifies as more of a textbook than a flowing, coherent narrative. Three stars is fair for this quality of work.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
Stories rich in narrative potential, such as Jay Gould’s efforts to corner the gold market in the 1870s, are somehow rendered less thrilling by the manner in which Geisst composes his work.. Though some of this shortcoming could have been smoothed over or outright eliminated by a more effective editor, it still robs Wall Street: A History of much of its ability to hook readers. Dishonest men like Gould would be joined a few centuries later on by the likes of Michael Milken, whose exploits in financial chicanery at Drexel, Burnham, Lambert demonstrated that greed is confined to no particular industry or century.
Much of the book focuses on the larger than life men who assisted in the evolution of the country’s economy. Tales of high flyers whose lavish beginnings do not end well begin early: the Washington administration is still in its first term when William Duer goes belly up and lands in debtors’ prison. He has the implosion of financial speculations backed by borrowed money to thank for this, and not even Alexander Hamilton's interventions can long save him from his fate.
U.S. financial markets were still literally operating on the curbside in New York City at the time of Duer’s unwinding. Stock and bond trading was still largely confined to Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. The Duer debacle crystallized the need for the young country to have a better organized trading center, bringing about the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement. A deal between auctioneers and dealers, this pact formalized things elements along the lines of more uniform commissions for traders.
Geisst's book spends many pages explaining how sharp minds on Wall Street created financial instruments to (in theory) make sectors of the economy run more effectively, delving into how the current system we have today was molded and shaped.
It deserves credit for keeping the story focused strictly on economic matters, only mentioning wars and scandals in relation to how they impacted the U.S. economy.
The Morgan family name (starting with J.P.) is a common thread running throughout Wall Street, with the fortunes associated with that dynasty dovetailing with various epochs in the economy. According to Wall Street: A History, “Morgan’s influence on the creation of corporate America was as strong as that of many inventors and entrepeneurs on their own businesses. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he had a domination position in railroads, life insurance, steel, and electricity, in addition to banking. Of all his activities, his role in the formation of U.S. Steel Corporation and the General Electric Company were perhaps the biggest feathers in his hat.”
The lack of a Federal Reserve system prior to the twentieth century underscored the periodic importance of deep-pocketed tycoons in preventing the stock market (and the U.S. government’s finances) from falling into disarray or outright collapsing. 1857, 1869-, 1873, and 1893 saw financial panics (potent economic downturns), with Wall Street firms essentially stepping in due to the lack of a central bank. Andrew Jackson’s role in preventing the renewal of the B.U.S.’s charter in the 1830s-and the battle against bank president Nicholas Biddle precipitated by the western president’s opposition to central banks-receives surprisingly scant attention. As evidenced by the numerous panics in the eighty years before central banking in the form of the Federal Reserve was reinstituted, the impact of this destruction very well might have set back U.S. economic development from what it otherwise might have been. This even set off a terrible panic in 1837 which torpedoed the van Buren administration and badly damaged the U.S.’s economic credibility on the world stage.
The importance of the railroads in the country’s economic development, and the manner in which the building of them brought foreign investment capital into the country, is the subject of a chapter preceding a look at the age of the so-called robber barons. This era dovetails with the U.S. government's battle against the money trusts as the nineteenth century morphs into the twentieth.
The 1930s and the reforms wrought by the New Deal consume a detail-rich chunk of the book. Geisst never tips his hand with regard to where he falls on an ideological spectrum, going to great lengths to avoid taking one side or another in past economic policy debates.
During the Great Depression section Geisst merely explains how the New Dealers changed regulation of Wall Street and the motivations which lay behind their desire to do so. He makes the argument that beginning in the 1950s-with a respite, strangely enough, during the Nixon administration-the nation quickly moved away from the regulatory mindset of the New Deal era and toward more of an era of deregulation. Again, he does not editorialize on whether this transformation was good or bad; both the good and bad outcomes resulting from strong regulations and the repealing of a lot of that framework are dutifully reported.
This book comes out to be more than the sum of its parts. Many of the paragraphs are poorly written and could have used at least one more rewrite, yet it is clear Geisst did his due diligence in digging up various Wall Street-related anecdotal pearls. Readers will learn a lot from it, but it almost qualifies as more of a textbook than a flowing, coherent narrative. Three stars is fair for this quality of work.
-Andrew Canfield Denver, Colorado
February 3, 2023
This book is not what you probably expect. It is essentially the history of Wall Street as an interest group intent on maximizing its share of the American economy rather than Wall Street as a function that has helped make the American economy the strongest and most dynamic in the world. As a result, there's a tendency to focus on pricing and the relationship with Washington and very little attention paid to why NY gained primacy over Philadelphia and Boston or how securities were distributed.
This is billed as the first history written of Wall Street, which is true to my knowledge. However, it would have been better to have someone else write the first history that laid out the nuts and bolts of how Wall St served all the different sectors of America and how it enriched itself. It also would do a better job retelling the colorful stories that abound and that Professor Geisst sucks the energy out of.
I noticed two small errors in my edition:
(1) he conflates Jesse Livermore with his talented ghostwriter Edwin Lefebrve
(2) Father Coughlin, the Depression demagogue, came from Detroit rather than Chicago.
This is billed as the first history written of Wall Street, which is true to my knowledge. However, it would have been better to have someone else write the first history that laid out the nuts and bolts of how Wall St served all the different sectors of America and how it enriched itself. It also would do a better job retelling the colorful stories that abound and that Professor Geisst sucks the energy out of.
I noticed two small errors in my edition:
(1) he conflates Jesse Livermore with his talented ghostwriter Edwin Lefebrve
(2) Father Coughlin, the Depression demagogue, came from Detroit rather than Chicago.
March 2, 2022
This is a tough read if you do not have a degree in finance. After I got into it, it was interesting to see what really happened in 2008 and 1987. People working in the stock market are greedy and will not be easily deterred. They are insulated and do not care who they hurt.
February 25, 2020
This was my first book on Wall Street and boy did I pick a very comprehensive one. The author's views on the history of securities in the US and Wall Street are interesting given he's a finance professor. I found it surprising how most of the Wall Street disasters have been directly attributed to ill regulations, and not directly to policy itself.
The book is rather lengthy and verbose, but the enthralling stories it tell of early Wall Street biggies make it worth a read.
The book touches upon almost all big events of the American history itself as most of those are directly or indirectly linked to the Wall Street. From the very beginning of Wall Street when Peter Stuyvesant built a barricade to the rise of Robber Barons, to the great financing trends of the railroad industry, to innovations of Bell and Edison, everything is tied to Wall Street. And the book has successfully captured it.
The book occasionally becomes very technical and almost resembles a text book, and in the right spirit. Some materials have to be studied with a rigorous, academic devotion.
Overall, this book is a must read for anyone interested in US history, economics and policies of Wall Street, and the evolution of regulations in securities.
The book is rather lengthy and verbose, but the enthralling stories it tell of early Wall Street biggies make it worth a read.
The book touches upon almost all big events of the American history itself as most of those are directly or indirectly linked to the Wall Street. From the very beginning of Wall Street when Peter Stuyvesant built a barricade to the rise of Robber Barons, to the great financing trends of the railroad industry, to innovations of Bell and Edison, everything is tied to Wall Street. And the book has successfully captured it.
The book occasionally becomes very technical and almost resembles a text book, and in the right spirit. Some materials have to be studied with a rigorous, academic devotion.
Overall, this book is a must read for anyone interested in US history, economics and policies of Wall Street, and the evolution of regulations in securities.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews