An American Hero…RIP

An American Hero…RIP

H. Ross Perot passed away at 89 years old.  Famous for making a lot of money and running for President, the short Texan with the big ears and common-sense speeches once saved the country from a major economic failure and possible 1929 like depression.

You won’t find this information in Wikipedia, it somehow has been almost forgotten.  I did find this article from 1971, but it took a lot of searching.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/the-fi-dupont-rescue-wall-st-survives-new-crisis-unknown-to-public.html

In short:

In 1970 Wall Street brokerage firms, which in those days were all partnerships not incorporations, were unable to keep up with processing trades and transfers of investment certificates.  It was called a paper crunch.  Computers were not yet sophisticated enough to handle all the transactions from an exploding stock market (10 million shares traded a day was a huge trading day in 1970.)

Two of the largest firms on the street, E.I. Dupont, and Goodbody and Company were in danger of bankruptcy.   If they failed, the loss of confidence in Wall Street would have likely caused a run on Wall Street much like the 1929 run on the banks.  The Countries economy was in big trouble.

The largest firm on the street, Merrill Lynch, agreed to bail out Goodbody and Company, but only if no other large (Too big to fail) firm was allowed to go under.

If E. I. Dupont was not saved, Goodbody and Company would not have been saved and a Wall Street house of cards would have tumbled.

H. Ross Perot stepped in and after much negations, he and his group of investors propped up Dupont.  Dupont was saved from bankruptcy, Merrill stepped in and took over Goodbody and Company, Wall Street stayed in business without skipping a beat.

It seems that most of the world was not aware of the potential economic collapse, very little was spoken about the near disaster.

H. Ross Perot stuck his skinny neck out and helped shore up the mess.

Some say he did it to enhance his fortune, and in the long run the deal may have been profitable (not sure).  I believe he stepped in because he knew how dangerous the situation was.  He stepped in at great risk of his entire fortune.

H. Ross Perot is remembered for his unique character, big ears and common sense.  He is remembered for his Presidential runs which probably swung an election to Bill Clinton.

It seems little is said about his role in saving the country from a depression not seen since 1929.

I will always remember H. Ross Perot as an American Hero.

RIP H. Ross Perot.