American utilities entrepreneur who was Thomas Edison's personal secretary — and who built Chicago's electricity system and one of the largest utility holding company empires in America — before his empire collapsed in the 1932 Great Depression, becoming one of the great cautionary tales of leveraged holding companies.
Electrified Chicago and much of the Midwest through the insight that electricity was a natural monopoly requiring enormous scale — his utility empire proved the thesis — while the holding company collapse demonstrated how leverage amplifies both upside and downside at scale.
Discussing
Ask anything about Sam Insull — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.
Sign in to start a conversation.