According to the Bank of England's analysis, if every single one of those countries went bust and wrote off 50% of their sovereign debt, banking debt and non-bank private-sector debt, that would wipe out around half the capital in the UK banking system - which is another way of saying that, in theory, the majority of our banks would limp on.

BBC: Why UK banks are not immune to eurozone woes

It was a feat Morgan and his crew would repeat across the industrial landscape, arranging new equilibrium conditions and regulatory mechanisms in one sector after the other, filling in for a non-existent central banking function (the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, marking the start of a whole new story).

FORBES: Entrepreneurs are the New Labor: Part I