# The House of Morgan Author: [[Ron Chernow]] ## Review Interesting (but long) history that connects the story of the morgan family and the morgan banks with economic and political history. There are a lot of facts and narratives spanning this 150 years of history, so what were the most important takeaways for me? 1. Banks evolve in response to economic and political pressure. But what I gathered is that the banks respond to what is required from the market place. Banks started out very powerful with a large role in industry. JP Morgan was a mediator and regulator. The backlash from the great depression split morgan into morgan stanley and jp.morgan (and commercial from investment banking). During and following WWII the connections and power of the banks made them critical political actors. 2. I felt the author was romanticizing the earlier periods a little and highlighting the greediness/competitiveness/short-termism of the latter period. But from my perspective banks have become more meritocratic and more commoditized over time, which is ultimately better for the market. 3. The early history of (peabody, junius, pierpont, jack) had a much more interesting narrative. You really cared about the people, especially pierpont morgan. Tom lemont was also an interesting character but it goes down hill from there. The story is much harder to follow because there is too much turnover in characters. The banking industry becomes a much more important part of the story. ## Key Ideas ## Related - [[Banking]] - [[History]] - [[Figures in History]]