No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.
John pierpont “Jack” Morgan
Just finished a book on the Z&H Book Club list. I wonder what JP Morgan would think of the complex financial instruments and concepts that led to the financial crisis in 2008. Tranches and re-tranching and swaps and subprime mortgages bundled up into a mass mess? Would he have approved of the banks getting together to try to save Bear Sterns and therefore the economy, just as he tried to save the economy in 1907? So many questions. So many theories.
Zelly & Ol' Hem's 