Fact #93004

When the gold market in the USA collapses, a banking panic ensues. At the root of the disaster, popularly referred to as Black Friday, was a pair of crooks, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk who tried to corner the market on gold, buying as much as they could and driving up the price. However, the government found out, and released $4m worth of gold into the market, driving down the price and ruining Gould, Fisk and many other investors. Steely Dan will borrow the term Black Friday for a song about a crooked financial speculator.