Jay Gould

Jason Gould (May 27, 1836 – December 2, 1892) was an American financier.

Legacy

In his lifetime and for a century after, Gould had a firm reputation as the most unethical of the 19th century American businessmen known as "robber barons". He routinely tested the boundaries of the law, finding ways to turn a situation in his favor when other businessmen might have settled. He pioneered the practice, now commonplace, of declaring bankruptcy as a strategic maneuver. He had no opposition to using stock manipulation and insider trading (which were then legal but frowned upon) to build capital (economics) and to execute or prevent hostile takeover attempts. As a result even the other great businessmen of the time did not trust Gould. Even so, John D. Rockefeller named him as the most skilled businessman he ever encountered.

Related Topics:
19th century - Robber barons - Bankruptcy - Insider trading - Capital (economics) - Takeover - John D. Rockefeller

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The New York City press published many rumors about Gould that biographers passed on as fact. For example, they alleged that Gould's dealings in the tanning business drove his partner Charles Leupp to suicide. In fact, Leupp had episodes of mania and clinical depression that psychiatrists would now recognize as indications of bipolar disorder, and his family knew that this, not his business dealings, caused his death. These biographers portrayed Gould as a parasite who extracted money from businesses and took no interest in improving them. Anti-semitism in connection with Gould's name motivated some of this hostility, even though he was a lifelong Calvinist.

Related Topics:
New York City - Suicide - Mania - Clinical depression - Psychiatrist - Bipolar disorder - Anti-semitism - Calvinist

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More recent biographers, including Maury Klein and Edward Renehan, have reexamined Gould's career with more attention to primary sources. They have concluded that fiction often overwhelmed fact in previous accounts, and that despite his methods, Gould's objectives were usually constructive.

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