Discussion Paper

The Final Crisis Chronicle: The Panic of 1907 and the Birth of the Fed


Abstract: The panic of 1907 was among the most severe we’ve covered in our series and also the most transformative, as it led to the creation of the Federal Reserve System. Also known as the “Knickerbocker Crisis,” the panic of 1907 shares features with the 2007-08 crisis, including “shadow banks” in the form high-flying, less-regulated trusts operating beyond the safety net of the time, and a pivotal “Lehman moment” when Knickerbocker Trust, the second-largest trust in the country, was allowed to fail after J.P. Morgan refused to save it.

Keywords: banking panics; shadow banks; panic of 1907; Federal Reserve; jekyll island;

JEL Classification: G1; G2; N2;

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Liberty Street Economics

Publication Date: 2016-11-18

Number: 20161118