AOW 11/07: IR 2

In the second half of The Man Who Made Wall Street, the author, Dan Rottenburg continued to discuss the events of Anthony J. Drexel and Drexel & Co Bankers. The last section of the book discusses the exponential growth of Drexel & Co, as well as the up and down economy of the United States. He describes the main event in great detail about the uniting of Drexel & Co. in Philadelphia, with J.S Morgan & Co. in London. In this "merge" two financial powerhouses pool together their vast capital and assets to create the most prevelent and most powerful private bank of the late nineteenth century. Rottenburg carefully choses which areas of Drexel's life he wants to examine to provide researchers and readers the best description of Anthony J Drexel. He connects many parts of the story through the people involved in each situation. When the railroad boom began in the late 1800s, he mentions the Northern Pacific Railroad, headed by Jay Cooke, because Drexel & Co's connection to Cooke and other railroads. He details the relationship between Drexel and Cooke, which was strained during the Civil War when Cooke was selling Treasury Bonds at full price through a false patriotism campaign. The Northern Pacific Railroad eventually declared bankruptcy, thus pleasing Tony Drexel and close companion George Childs, whom also had a brief spat with Cooke. He uses a lot of jargon that is involved in the financial industry (i.e. call all coupons, capital reserves v. capital funds) that help researchers understand the actions that were executed by Drexel & Co. He briefly discusses the detail of different financial language, but still holds true to his purpose of providing detailed information to researchers. Rottenburg appropriate concludes Drexel's biography with the details of his death and the aftermath of his ancestors, estate, and Drexel, Morgan and Co. He concludes by talking about the present and how Drexel changed and sculpted the landscape of modern finance as well as America, thus supporting his intial claim of the change brough upon by Drexel.