Armen Alchian

Marginal Revolution and Organizations and Markets are reporting that Arment Alchian passed away. I'll never understand why he did not receive the Nobel Prize.

Financial Regulation and the Panic of 1907

My paper "Financial Regulation and the Panic of 1907" will be in the Winter 2013 Business History Review.
Here is the abstract

Previous studies of the Panic of 1907 have argued that lax regulation enabled trust companies to take excessive risks, leading to a loss of confidence and massive runs. These studies have, however, given relatively little attention to the historical development of trust companies. This paper argues that a more historical perspective can lead to a better understanding of the institutional framework and the actions of trust companies. Depositors did not lose confidence because of inadequate regulation; depositors lost confidence in specific trust companies because of false rumors, and diversity among trust companies hindered cooperation to halt the Panic.

And here is an earlier version on SSRN

Sometimes Bad Things Happen to Good Trust Companies: A Reexamination of the Trust Company Panic of 1907