Which U.S. president was in office during the Panic of 1907?

Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States during the Panic of 1907.

The panic began after an attempted attempt to corner the stock of United Copper Company failed in October 1907. Depositors then withdrew funds from banks and trust companies connected to the scheme, and fear spread through New York’s financial system. The crisis intensified when the Knickerbocker Trust Company collapsed.

Roosevelt was serving his second term when the panic struck. Because the United States had no modern central bank, private financiers played a major role in stabilizing the system. J. Pierpont Morgan organized emergency lending and persuaded banks to cooperate, while the Treasury also supplied funds.

The panic helped convince American policymakers that a permanent lender of last resort was necessary. The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913. Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, was president by then, so Taft is sometimes mistakenly associated with the panic itself.