Mar
20
As Coal’s Future Grows Murkier, Banks Pull Financing
ByA Peabody Energy coal mine in Wyoming. The company announced last week that it might have to file for bankruptcy. CreditEduardo Porter/The New York Times
Tens of thousands of miners were on strike and coal prices were skyrocketing in October 1902. Afraid of unrest, President Theodore Roosevelt sought the help of John Pierpont Morgan.
The powerful banker, who held great sway over the coal industry, brokered a deal with the miners that ended the strike…