J.P. Morgan locked bankers in his library during a panic

A closer look

Before the Federal Reserve existed, the US economy’s safety net was literally just a grumpy 70-year-old billionaire. During the Panic of 1907, the stock market crashed and banks were collapsing like dominoes. J.P. Morgan invited New York's top bankers to his private library, locked the massive brass doors, and slipped the key into his pocket. He refused to let anyone leave until they coughed up $25 million to bail out the trust companies and stop the panic. It worked, but the government suddenly realized that outsourcing their entire monetary policy to a guy who could just buy a yacht instead was probably a massive national security risk.