New York City hosted the 1907 banking panic that helped inspire the creation of the Federal Reserve.
The Panic of 1907 began after a failed attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company. The failure spread through trust companies and banks, producing runs and a severe shortage of credit in New York's financial system.
J. P. Morgan organized private support to stabilize institutions and stop the panic. His intervention demonstrated how dependent the United States was on a single private financier during a national financial emergency.
The crisis encouraged monetary reform. The Aldrich–Vreeland Act of 1908 created a National Monetary Commission, whose work helped lead to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The panic was centered in New York, although its economic effects reached across the country.