American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune, Steinmetz - C

                 "This book seeks to explain Jay Gould and his under appreciated - and aggressively maligned - role in the country's transformative economic expansion of the nineteenth century. Only the strictures of conscience, rather than law and regulation, governed the participants. That left the unscrupulous free to self-deal, fix prices, trade on inside information, lie to investors, and manipulate stock prices. In New York, men in top hats, abetted by corrupt politicians, snatched your life savings."

                 He was born Jason Gould in 1836. As a teenager, he developed surveying skills and ran a successful mapping business.  When he was twenty, he opened a tannery. Realizing that merchants and traders made more money than he could running a tannery, he headed for Manhattan. He became a stock broker and  worked harder than everyone else. He and his colleague Jim Fisk finagled their way into positions with the Erie RR. On the cusp of bankruptcy, Erie raised money in London, and Gould manipulated his own company's stock in a bear raid, keeping the company away from Cornelius Vanderbilt. And made a fortune in the process. He then turned his attention to gold and orchestrated a devastating 'Black Friday.' He used futures to control half of the private gold in NY. The price began to rise. Others shorted it. Gould sent Fisk to the Gold Exchange where he loudly acquired more, while Gould had a dozen small brokers selling his positions. The Panic of 1873 sent the country into a five year depression. Gould took advantage of the fallen prices and purchased the Union Pacific RR. He later purchased the Kansas Pacific RR, and by the early 1880's, he controlled one-ninth of the mileage in the US. He also formed a telegraph company that took over Western Union. The Panic of 1884 caught Gould overextended, but he put all of his available money into the Missouri Pacific RR which had extensive short positions owned by his enemies. The stock soared and he was once again very, very rich. He announced he would trade no more and would simply mange his businesses. He slowed down and at the age of 52 was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His life unravelled quickly. He was weak, lost a considerable amount of weight, and lost his beloved wife, Ellie. He died in December, 1892.

                 His estate was an astounding $65M. The author suggests that had he lived longer, he likely would have done what Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Carnegie did, i.e. created philanthropic entities that would have whitewashed his reputation. He is mostly forgotten now, but "he accelerated productivity as much as any contemporary and, in doing so, improved the lives of most Americans." Mark Twain and Charles Francis Adams thought him the devil incarnate. "He lied. He cheated. He stole. But he was so good at what he did, so intelligent in the execution, and such a clean, kind, and industrious family man that, try as you might, you can't hate him properly." I believe scoundrel fits better than rascal.