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Washington and Wall Street: The New Deal and Investment Bankers, 1933–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Vincent Carosso
Vincent Carosso
Affiliation:
Professor of History, New York University
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Abstract

Professor Carosso analyzes the impact of New Deal legislation upon the nation's investment banking community. Although some adjustments in banking methods resulted, the reforms did not effect any fundamental changes in the position of investment bankers in the American economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , Winter 1970 , pp. 425 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1970

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References

1 An abbreviated version of this article was read at the April, 1968 meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Dallas, Texas.

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8 Harris Forbes Companies, organized in 1922, was the parent company of Harris Forbes & Co. (New York) and Harris Forbes & Co. (Boston), two independent corporations set up in 1911. In 1930, the parent company was taken over by the Chase Securities Corporation, the affiliate of the Chase National Bank; the next year the names of the New York and Boston Harris Forbes organizations were changed to Chase Harris Forbes Corporation. See U.S. v. Henry S. Morgan et al., “Corrected Opinion,” 89–90.

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26 Alfred E. Borneman, vice president of Kidder, Peabody & Co., Inc., to author, January 20, 1968.

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38 U.S. TNEC, Final Report of the Executive Secretary, 231.

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49 Quoted in “The Securities Act: An Interim Report,” Fortune, VIII (December, 1933), 34.

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51 New York Times, March 21, 1937; Ferdinand Pecora to author, May 22, 1964.

52 “Warburg Points Out Faults of Securities Act,” Rand McNally Bankers Monthly, LI (February, 1934), 106.

53 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957, 658; “The Investment Banker: 1939,” 84.

54 Bates, “Some Effects of the Securities Act,” 74; Miller, “Effects on Investment Banking Practices of Federal Regulation of Securities,” 356; U.S. v. Henry S. Morgan et al., “Corrected Opinion,” 41 – 42.

55 U.S. House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 77 Cong., 1 and 2 Sess., Proposed Amendments to the Securities Act of 1933 and to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: Hearings (6 pts., Washington, 1941–42), II, 403–404; Kemmerer, “The Marketing of Securities, 1930–1952,” 454–68.

56 Sweezy, Paul M., “The Decline of the Investment Banker,” Antioch Review, I (March, 1941), 63–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Chase, Stuart, “Shadow over Wall Street,” Harper's Magazine, CLXXX (March, 1940), 367–374.Google Scholar

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58 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Banking and Monetary Statistics (Washington, 1943), 485Google Scholar; Chase, “Shadow over Wall Street,” 364.

59 “Investment Banking: 1939,” 110.

60 Haven, Investment Banking under the Securities and Exchange Commission, 133 – 40. The four firms were Blair & Co., Schoellkopf, Hutton & Pomeroy, Central Republic Co., and Harris Hall & Co.

61 Stigler, George J., “Public Regulation of the Securities Markets,” Journal of Business, XXXVII (April, 1964), 124.Google Scholar Stigler's view is criticized by Irwin Friend and Edward S. Herman, “The S.E.C. through a Glass Darkly,” ibid. (October, 1964), 382–105, and by Sidney Robbins and Walter Werner, “Professor Stigler Revisited,” ibid. (October, 1964), 406–413. Stigler replies to his critics in “Comment,” ibid. (October, 1964), 414–422.

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