1901: J.P. Morgan announces that he is organizing the largest corporation the world has yet seen by merging his Federal Steel conglomerate with Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Co. The company is initially capitalized at $1.4 billion -- the first billion-dollar company ever -- four times the budget of the U.S. government and 7% of the gross national product. In a popular joke of the day, a schoolboy is asked about the history of the world. "God created the world in 4004 B.C.," he answers, "and it was reorganized by J.P. Morgan in 1901."
