News Summary

• On January 1, 1870, Jay Cooke, hailed as an American hero for his role in financing the Union effort in the Civil War, signed a contract that would, if you squint, lead to world war.
• Northern Pacific had approached Cooke about funding in 1866, but lacked the generous federal guarantees that undergirded Union Pacific and Central Pacific.
• Cooke soon found that his institutional peers agreed with his earlier refusal, and weren’t interested in his bonds, so he leaned on the same tactics he honed selling war bonds.