Jay Gould was the most astute fin¿l. & bus. strategist of his time & also the most widely hated. He could almost always outsmart the likes of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. & Cornelius Vanderbilt. Gould was the indisputed master of the nation¿s railroads & telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. Gould created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital, & swallowing his competitors.

Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances. ¿Paints the portrait of a man who was the most talented financial buccaneer of his generation -- & one of the inventors of modern bus.¿ Illustrations.