The Dark Genius Of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons |...

The Dark Genius Of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons | Edward J., Jr. Renehan | I do not dislike Gould as much anymore

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	The Dark Genius Of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons Edward J., Jr. Renehan Basic Books, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Though reviled for more than a century as Wall Street's greatest villain, Jay Gould was in fact its most original creative genius. Gould was the robber baron's robber baron, the most astute financial and business strategist of his time and also the most widely hated. He could go head-to-head with the likes of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the U.S. Treasury and almost always outsmart them. Gould was the undisputed master of the nation's railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital, and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances and unrepeatable; some were among the first things prohibited by the SEC when it came into being in the 1930s.

Acclaimed biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr., recounts the dazzling life story of a figure whose influence in his day outranks that of Bill Gates today. Simultaneously, Renehan reveals a time when a "corporate takeover battle" was quite literally a battle involving not just lawyers and bankers but the buying and selling of judges and occasional confrontations between gangs of armed thugs. Renehan combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to paint the portrait of a man who was undoubtedly the most talented financial buccaneer of his generation-and one of the inventors of modern business.

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a long overdue balanced biography

The author has done excellent work in condensing Jay Gould's colossal business career into this enjoyable biography. Since Jay Gould was involved in thousands of enterprises, no book can ever cover his dealings and career and personal life without coming short on one end or another. But for anyone wanting to get a balanced view of all aspects of this correctly titled genius, there is no better than this book. No other biography of Gould -- Klein is less objective and too sympatetic, or Warshaw, or O'Connor which are mean-spirited if not sensational, or Grodinski, which disregarded Gould's personality completely -- does such a good job in bringing it all together. I doubt there will be other Gould biogrpahipes since this one is a conclusion to all others. A must read. Nitsan Ben-Horin, New York.

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I do not dislike Gould as much anymore

The great contribution of this book is that it clears many of the historical misunderstandings that one has come to accept as fact about Gould from other sources.

A long overdue balanced biography

The author has done excellent work in condensing Jay Gould's colossal business career into this enjoyable biography. Since Jay Gould was involved in thousands of enterprises, no book can ever cover his dealings and career and personal life without coming short on one end or another. But for anyone wanting to get a balanced view of all aspects of this correctly titled genius, there is no better than this book. No other biography of Gould -- Klein is less objective and too sympatetic, or Warshaw, or O'Connor which are mean-spirited if not sensational, or Grodinski, which disregarded Gould's personality completely -- does such a good job in bringing it all together. I doubt there will be other Gould biogrpahipes since this one is a conclusion to all others. A must read. Nitsan Ben-Horin, New York.

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Helluva Guy

This entertaining volume reminds me of a book my mother bought decades ago by a descendant of Count Dracula that sought to rehabilitate his ancestor's reputation while cashing in on his notoriety. Thus in this work, Gould who was denounced in his day by even spokesmen of the conservative business community, to say nothing of labor activists, as an unscrupulous rogue, cutthroat, "financial vampire" and "pirate" is depicted as a misunderstood entreprenuer who did nothing that his rivals would not stoop to. While there may be more than a kernel of truth to that assertion, Gould's historical reputation as one of the most infamous incarnations of his day is backed by more than substantial evidence.

Gould was a highly skilled financial operator who rose from humble roots in upstate New York, where after starting out as a surveyor's apprentice, he began his business career in the thuggish intrigues of the tanning industry. Thereafter, at the outset of the Civil War, he moved to the City where he quickly rose to take on some of the titans of business like Commodore Vanderbilt, who detested him. Unlike Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and even Morgan, however, Gould dealt almost exclusively in stock and financial manipulations to build his fortunes with little regard for building up industry and the means of production. Thus he would acquire properties, like the Erie Railroad, and run them into the ground and dump them after they had been milked dry as cash cows. Needless to say, the interests of the rank and file workers of these enterprises meant little to him, commenting once during a labor dispute he was embroiled in with them, that he could hire half the working class to kill off the other half.

In his financial and stock dealings he was known as the most skilled and unscrupulous operator of his day, the top dog of Wall Street, that even those who considered themselves his closest colleagues needed to watch their backs around. In that regard he would have made the Transylvanian noble blush; and no, he was not, as widely believed, Jewish, although he made a point of not gainsaying his "Hebraic" roots as he felt this added to the aura of mystery and fear around him that he found useful to his purposes. Most notable of his escapades was his attempt to corner the gold market in 1869 which almost collapsed the entire U.S. economy.

Jay Gould was a predatory speculative capitalist who rightly makes latter day embodiments of this type like Boesky, Millken and Skilling seem like bumbling amateurs. Like them, he did from time to time face legal troubles, but unlike these financial pirates of today, he was usually able to, sometimes quite brazenly, in a way that is fortunately no longer tolerated, bribe judges and politicians to escape any significant consequence, although on one occasion he was forced to temoporarily decamp to New Jersey with much of his wealth in carpet bags after Vanderbilt and his rivals had outmaneuvered him in this game of graft in the New York courts.

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Jay Gould: Yet Another Giant of the Gilded Age

I leave this book with a feeling that Jay Gould is viewed as an evil villain who was a wrecker of companies. He is perceived a lot worse than some other robber barons of his day like Rockefeller. Maybe it was the difference in their generosities, or maybe it had to do with Jay playing the stock market so secretively where you know there is just so much illegal "goings-on" at the time. There are plenty of reasons to keep you guessing...

Jay was excellent at spotting opportunities - this was his specialty, and once he had his sights on something, he didn't quit until he acquired whatever he set out to obtain. He was a man who moved in secrecy at every level to achieve his goal. In any event - besides Jay starting his huge career in railroads, he was a mammoth manipulator of the market using any tactic possible to make a buck in the street; Wall Street that is. This included bribing judges, and whoever else stood in the way. He was definitely a man of his times and a product of his environment where: you either take what you can get or you get eliminated! Jay exercised many illegal devices to build his enormous empire. This is yet another classic example of a man using his abilities which were so far advanced that the government had to insert new laws to curb what activities were permissible in future business practice.

There are a few lessons that one can learn from this book regarding life, and business savvy. One of those being the following: Jay was another man who built such a vast empire in his time that I realized "one can build his own prison" meaning that even with all the money in the world, a man in his position has so many responsibilities that it can weigh you down to the point of getting physical ill. You know that you have to take care of the day-day business problems yourself because you can't depend on anyone else to do it thoroughly. You can get too big, or become too wealthy for your own good... something to ponder over...

In my opinion, this story does have its' slow points. There are lots of details which can take away from a consistent reading flow. I found myself struggling to stay with this book at times; then it would pick up again (maybe I'm just unfamiliar with this author's style of writing). I give the book 3 stars for I thought the book was good, but again very slow at times. I have read other biographies on similar characters that were much more entertaining, and free flowing.

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