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The banking industry is surrounded by so many conspiracies that sometimes its quite difficult
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to separate facts from fiction, starting from Rothschilds banking dynasty
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to JP morgan.
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If the Rothschilds banking empire has shrunk dramatically in recent decades, JP morgan's
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banking empire only expanded to the point, as of 2019, it has $3 ($2.988) trillion dollars
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in assets under management, while its investment and corporate arm holds 25.45 trillion dollars
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in assets under custody.
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In fact, It was JP Morgan himself who pushed the government to create the federal reserve,
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the center of all modern conspiracies. For over a hundred years, JP Morgan has been in
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the centre of american banking.
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In this video, we are going to look at how JP morgan created the worlds largest bank
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and How he ended up also convincing the government to create the FED.
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It all started in 1837 in Hartford, Connecticut where John Pierpont Morgan was born.
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John joined the banking business just when he hit 20, after coming back from Europe,
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in 1857. Following his father's footsteps. His father J. S. Morgan had already established
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the merchant banking firm, Peabody, Morgan & Co.
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Back then the United States wasn't the superpower that it is today, it was more like an emerging
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market, so the Europeans were investing heavily in United states since returns were quite
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high, especially in the railroad, it was like the internet of that time, everyone thought
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that the railroads are the future and no one would dare to miss this opportunity.
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But Morgan was smart enough not to invest his money because he knew that it was turning
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into a bubble and everything would crash at any moment as we will later see in this video,
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however that didn't stop him from funneling European investments through American companies
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into the railroad. He even got personally involved in the development and management
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of the railroads across the nation.
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Morgan was a big believer in Big Corporations because, they enable economies of scale, and
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make them more competitive.
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so his vision was to always merge multiple small businesses and turn them into a conglomerate.
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In 1890 he took control of J.S. Morgan & Co., his vision was to buy Carnegie steel business
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and merge it with several other steel, coal, mining and shipping firms. And formed the
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United States Steel Corporation. It became the first billion-dollar company in the world
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with a market cap of 1.4 Billion dollars. With economies of scale, they reduced their
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cost and started competing globally against Europeans.
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His influence was beyond Steel and Railroad although these two were the best 2 industries
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of that time. He also played an important role and helped to merge Edison electric with
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its competitors that ended up becoming General Electic.
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His vision was always, the bigger the company, the bigger economies of scale it can achieve.
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He also helped to create AT&T and multiple other companies.
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It seems like it was JP Morgan who rooter the idea of the giant corporations in the
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United States, but that's exactly what made JP Morgan one of the most powerful banking
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houses of the world by 1900, Morgan reorganized business's structures and
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management to return them to profitability. His reputation as a banker also helped bring
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investors on board to the businesses that he took over.
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However, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, remember the crisis I told you about in the
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beginning. Well, after multiple decades of dramatic growth,
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the bubble finally burst and the stock market crashed like it always does. It ripped the
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American economy, Even the major banks were on the verge of bankruptcy.
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The banks tried to get their loans back, but the firms simply weren't able to pay and
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the United States didn't have a central bank at that time to rescue them,
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So, Morgan stepped in and saved the economy.
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He pledged a large sum of his own money and convinced other major new york bankers to
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do the same. If it wasn't for him, the crises would have deepened.
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But it also illustrated the vast influence of a single banker on the entire American
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economy. That was a clear sign for the government to
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step in and take over the money supply. what would happen if another crisis would
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hit? relying on rich guys in new york isn't always the best of the options!
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That's when the US decided to create a central bank. and in 1913, the federal reserve was
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born. Just a few months after JP Morgan passed away.
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But that didn't stop, JP Morgan Company from growing even bigger. It played an important
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role in WW1. However, when the war came to an end, financial crises hit the world again.
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The great depression lasted almost 10 years and the congress took any measures to save
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the economy. And part of it was to pass the Banking act of 1933 that Separated the commercial
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banks from investment banks, that forced JP Morgan & Co. To break up.
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However, for JP morgan to become as big and powerful as its today, it had to merge with
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multiple other banks through the century. The most notable of them is probably Chase
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Manhatanna bank that was already a merger of 2 other big banks, Chase National Bank
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and Bank of the Manhattan Company that was founded back in 1799, one of the oldest financial
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institutions in the history of the united states.
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Another bank that also creating a fierce competition was Chemical Bank Corporation, the name sounds
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quite unusual for a bank. It was initially a chemical manufacturing company back when
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it was founded in 1823, however just a year after that it got into the banking sector.
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After more than a century, in the 1980s and 1990s, it was at the front of the industry.
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Remember Chase Manhattan Bank, despite its successes, it was extremely weakened by a
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real estate collapse so it merged with Chemical Bank in 1996 and become the biggest bank in
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the entire nation.
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The marriage of the biggest banks of America didn't stop there, the competition was fierce,
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and Chase Manhattan Bank had to find ways to compete with Goldman Sacks, Morgan Stanely,
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So in December of 2000, the 2 giant financial institutions merged, Chase Manhattan and JP
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Morgan to become the largest bank in America - JP Morgan Chase & Co.
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It might seem like that would be the end of mergers and these banks would finally stop
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expanding, however that wasn't the case, in 2004, JP morgan purchased Chicago Based,
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Bank One Corporation for 58 Billion dollars in stocks, Bringing on board Jamie Dimon who
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would end up becoming the CEO and take the company to where it is now.
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Despite the fact that JP Morgan was powerful enough to save the nation from the panic of
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1907, The bank in its current structure is the result of the combination of several large
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U.S. banks ( Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Chemical
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Bank, Manufacturing Hanover, First Chicago Bank, National Bank of Detroit, Texas Commerce
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Bank, Providian Financial, Great Western Bank)
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Like in 1907, the world was hit by another crisis, in 2008 the stock market crashed again,
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but this time the crisis was much bigger. Companies went bankrupt one after another,
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including conglomerates such as Lehman brothers. The fifth-largest bank in the US, Bear Stearns
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lost almost half (47%) of its value and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Unlike 1907, this time there was a central bank (federal reserve) to save the economy.
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ANd JP Morgan Chase took full advantage of that. To prevent the collapse of such a giant
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bank, the government rescued Bear Stearns by lending $29 billion to JPMorgan Chase to
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buy the firm. The tried to purchase bank for around 230 million dollars valuing each share
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at only 2 dollars, when it was valued above hundred bucks just before the crises, but
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it didn't work out, so they ended up paying 10 dollars a share.
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And JP Morgan came out of the crises only stronger and Bigger!
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JP Morgan isn't without controversies. They were involved in multiple scandals. They paid
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over 2 billion dollars in fines and legal settlements for their role in financing Enron
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Corp fraudulent securities. In fact, they also ended up paying another 2.2 billion dollars
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to settle a lawsuit filed by Enron Investors. The number of controversies and lawsuits that
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it went through is beyond what we can possibly cover in this video.
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But JPMorgan Chase is probably exactly how JP Morgan himself envisioned the company,
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he was a big supporter of mergers and the company consistently merged or purchased other
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banks to be where they are today.
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And now its your turn, what do you think? Should banks be allowed to keep merging and
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get bigger, or the government should intervene and limit banks.
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Let me know down in the comments below.In anyways, as always hit that like button.
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Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.