| (1755
- 1804) |
| Inducted: |
1995 |
| Region: |
Northeast |
| Industry: |
Finance
|
|
Alexander Hamilton founded the Bank of New York and the New York Evening Post but devoted most of his life to public service. Banks, newspapers, and countless other enterprises might well have failed were it not for Hamilton’s brilliance as the nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Hamilton reversed the downward spiral of depression, but the economy was too weak to tax, so he sold federal promissory notes to investors, promising they would be paid in full and with interest. Hamilton’s plan sparked the first American economic boom. |
