Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein spent more than a decade as co-host of the Planet Money podcast. He's also the author of the book Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing, which the New…
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Jay Gould became hugely rich without ever really making a product or offering service to benefit his customers. Other “Robber Barons” in the 19th century forged steel or pumped oil to make money – but Gould preferred to manipulate the stock market or bribe judges and politicians to generate a profit.
Even when he was fired from the railway company he mismanaged, he used this inside information to profit from the soaring share price. No one liked Jay Gould – indeed many people physically assaulted him because of his awful behaviour – but his real legacy was the raft of laws America passed to try to prevent such a businessman ever rising to power again.
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The Hosts
Robert Smith
Robert Smith, co-host of the Business History podcast, is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and contributing host of NPR's Planet Money where he tells stories about how the…
