Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism

by Diana B. Henriques

The “extraordinary” (New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice) story of FDR’s fight for the soul of American capitalism—from award-winning journalist Diana B. Henriques, author of The Wizard of Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust

“I thought I was well versed in the New Deal, but it turns out I knew next to nothing. Diana Henriques’s chronicle is meticulous, illuminating, and riveting.”—Kurt Andersen, New York Times bestselling author of Evil Geniuses and Fantasyland

A BLOOMBERG BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Taming the Street describes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. With deep reporting and vivid storytelling, Diana B. Henriques takes readers back to a time when America’s financial landscape was a jungle ruled by the titans of vast wealth, largely unrestrained by government. Roosevelt ran for office in 1932 vowing to curb that ruthless capitalism and make the world of finance safer for ordinary savers and investors. His deeply personal campaign to tame the Street is one of the great untold dramas in American history. 

Success in this political struggle was far from certain for FDR and his New Deal allies, who included the political dynasty builder Joseph P. Kennedy and the future Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. Wall Street’s old guard, led by New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney, fought every new rule to the “last legal ditch.” That clash—between two sharply different visions of financial power and federal responsibility—has shaped how “other people’s money” is managed in the United States to this day. 

As inequality once again reaches Jazz Age levels, Henriques brings to life a time when the system worked—an idealistic moment when ordinary Americans knew what had to be done and supported leaders who could do it. A vital history and a riveting true-life thriller, Taming the Street raises an urgent and troubling What does capitalism owe to the common good?

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Economics, American History, Business, American

443 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 12, 2023

About the author

Diana B. Henriques is the author of 'The White Sharks of Wall Street' and 'Fidelity's World.' She is a senior financial writer for The New York Times, having joined the Times staff in 1989.

A Polk Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Henriques has won several awards for her work on the Times' coverage of the Madoff scandal and was part of the team recognized as a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of the financial crisis of 2008. She lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5, but rounded up for importance of the topic. And for having some twists that I just did NOT expect.

Henriques wrote this book with a very clear agenda. In the 1920s, the wealthier got more so, there were no regulations to keep that in check, and it hurt the country. And she sees that we're slipping back there--this book is 100% a warning, but also an illustration of how things can be made better. Toward the end of the book, she writes, "A healthy democracy cannot survive without a fair economy," which is as good a way of expressing her thesis as can be. Also

Roosevelt said: Let's lift up the great mass of ordinary people--give them a living wage to spend, safe ways to spend and invest, a pension for their old age, affordable utility bills--and let them fuel a prosperous economy in which the rich can benefit along with everyone else. Let's put some rules in place that will give everyone a fair shot.

Henriques frames the book around four men: Franklin Roosevelt; Joseph Kennedy, eventual ambassador to Great Britain; Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange; and future Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. She details the problems with the 1920s economy; I was surprised to find out how NOT roaring it was for the majority of the country. The mechanics behind the stock market crashes was interesting to learn about.

Unfortunately, the actual details of how the stock market worked and the regulations proposed and the abuses thereof never totally clicked for me (much, I'm sure, to my father's chagrin). I quite enjoyed her writing and storytelling, but definitely got bogged down in the details a lot, which sometimes made this a challenge to read. I'm still not sure what "over the counter"...somethings...are.

But when dealing with the rest, I was really involved in the book. The intrigue of creating the Securities and Exchange Commission, who would be on it, how they completed their work; the scandals on Wall Street; the politics--it was great. There was just so much in there that I didn't know, and I made a LOT of highlights. It didn't hurt that Henriques is an unapologetic FDR fan. And so much of the content echoes in today's world ("'We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press,' [Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague] told reporters. 'Every time I hear these words, I say to myself, "that man is a Red, that man is a Communist." You never hear a real American talk in that manner.'").

Not the easiest read, but frequently an enjoyable one, and an important one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the digital ARC!

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exceptionally well written and thoroughly researched book. As a person with an MBA, I was aware of most of the movements made by FDR and the government on the American business community.

However, this book has an exceptional depth of research that is thoroughly refreshing, combined with a smooth writing style, that many writers of history books with thoroughly could enjoy

I highly recommend this book for people who have a serious interest in the American business and its history.

I received an advance review copy from Net Galley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a history of how the New Deal came into operation with a special focus on reforms in finance and banking. In particular, this is in effect a story of the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, presented in terms of a four part biography of the key players involved. It is an informative and entertaining book.

The key individuals in the book are: Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Kennedy, William O. Douglas, and Richard Whitney. The key facts of this history are well known, and there were lots of key individuals in the story. These four were the focus, however, since without them, the SEC may not have come to pass or if it had would have been very different from the agency that developed. Roosevelt is an obvious choice, but the others are less obvious. William O. Douglas is known for his time as an Associate Supreme Court Justice, which came after this story, but his initial turn as a key lawyer and analyst of the stock exchange and investors is eye-opening. I hadn’t known and was surprised. I had been aware of the role of Joseph Kennedy as the first head of the SEC and the commments at the time of turning over the henhouse to the scrutiny of the fox, but the details of the arrangement and how well Kennedy did were surprising. The details are well worth knowing. Finally, there is Richard Whitney, who was a staunch opponent of the effort to regulate the NYSE. Again, it wasn’t the details of his hostile rhetoric but more the gory details of his fall from grace and the bankruptcy of his firm that were critical in cementing the perceived need for a strong regulator and the infeasibility of continued self-regulation by the old boy network. So personalities are important, especially as they fit into the broader agency origin story.

As a general punch line, this book is similar to the book on Presidential Chiefs of Staff that I recently read. The idea is that it is necessary to have substance and an overall quality mission for success in government policies and reform, but there are needs to be a capacity to actually implement policy - to work with the set of individuals and organizations important for implementation in order to get the initiative done - up and running. That is the great value of Diana Henriques’ story of the SEC and why the book is more valuable than conventional institutional histories.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruthless, back room, selfish, privileged, immoral exploitation of the securities markets. Ever was, ever will be, apparently. Wall Street fought regulation every inch of the way in the 1930s, and as soon as a law was in place, Wall Street started trying to repeal or weaken it. Roosevelt backed his SEC people all the way. But the epilogue explains that Truman wasn’t interested, Eisenhower hacked more than half their budget away, and it just went on the same way for decades. We’ve seen ups and downs ever since, from the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s to the housing bubble in 2008 to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto-currency scam. And always: a little bit of reactive regulation, quickly eroded by Wall-Street and banking friendly legislators. And now the Supreme Court has cut the legs off of regulators ability to use their expertise to counter ever-evolving financial contortionists.

This is a very good tale of the players who helped precipitate the 1929 crash and the outraged New Dealers who set out to protect American investors from suffering the same thing again.

The New Dealers fought tirelessly to set up the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and get laws through Congress to do a number of things. These included bringing down the corrupt public utility holding companies, requiring over-the-counter markets to organize and manage themselves, bankruptcy reform to give smaller creditors fair treatment, requiring accountants and auditors to fairly and rigorously portray a company’s status, and barring self-dealing by brokerage houses and traders.

What they were up against was the aristocratic brotherhood that ran Wall Street. Henriques details how the leaders of the Exchange and the House of Morgan covered up the incredible malfeasance of Dick Whitney. At one time he had been president of the NYSE, and edging him aside had been the only way to get the exchange to agree to self-regulation in place of more extensive government control. However, later scandals showed that Wall Street wouldn’t censure the most powerful players, which finally enabled some of the strongest regulation.

Henriques focuses on four people: Dick Whitney, noted above, Joe Kennedy (who had surely skated on thin ice in the 1920s but signed on to help Roosevelt and served as the first SEC chair), William Douglas (Yale professor specializing in bankruptcy, who served as a bulldog SEC chair before moving to the Supreme Court), and Roosevelt himself.

I read this, by coincidence, at the same time I was reading Hernan Diaz’s Trust. Both cover the same period and topic; Diaz using fiction to highlight the the source of twisted emotions that drive devious behavior, and Henriques showing how government is necessary to counter powerful people without morals or integrity.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I was a kid, I’ve always had an interest in the Great Depression (thanks American Girl!). Over the years I’ve collected bits and pieces of it through different media and my own research. Aside from other books about Franklin Delano Roosevelt which speak a lot about the Great Depression, I haven’t read any books solely dedicated to the topic before now.

The book predominantly follows the roles of FDR and Joseph P. Kennedy at the time of the 1929 stock market crash and its aftermath. When FDR was elected as president of the United States in 1932, he vowed to amend the way the country handled finance. Thus, the New Deal was born.

Though I found the writing strong and engaging enough, this is the kind of book I would have enjoyed more as an audiobook. The topic is interesting, just long (as it should be). I learned a lot, so for that reason, I was glad to be able to save highlights. It’s a great addition to any history nerd’s library.

A huge thanks to Random House for inviting me to read the digital ARC through NetGalley!

[Teddy Stravin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought I was going to be reading solely about FDR and the New Deal, but the four horsemen approach was incredibly engaging and kept me hooked.

[Damon Glassmoyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am aware of the debate over "did FDR really get us out of the Great Depression, or did WWII?" This book reminds us that there was indeed a huge mess to clean up after the 1929 crash, and that mess will recur every time the US forgets how that mess happened (see 1987, 2008, etc). Powerful argument for the New Deal financial regulations.

[Suze · Rating 5 out of 5]

In school, you sort of vaguely touch on things like stock exchanges, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. I knew that I didn’t really understand any of those things at all, though, so when I was offered the chance to read “Taming the Street: The Old Guard, The New Deal, and FDR’s Fight To Regulate American Capitalism,” by Diana B. Henriques, it felt like a good chance to learn something new, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Henriques opens the tale by introducing us to a cast of characters surrounding Wall Street in the late 1920s, and proceeds to tell a story of how their actions, good and bad, weave together to create the New York Stock Exchange as it existed in the 1930s - a house of cards held together by shady dealings and Elmer’s glue, as FDR could see, and to which he went to work attempting to regulate once and for all. We learn about the formation of the Securities & Exchange Commission, and how the fledgling agency struggled to take control of Wall Street and its underhanded business practices. Along the way, I surprised myself by how attached I became to the people involved - “Holy s**t, no!!” I exclaimed about halfway through the book, upon learning of one central character’s misdeeds, and then thought, wow, I cared about that a lot, huh?

And that’s the thing that makes “Taming the Street” compelling, I think. You could learn about the stock market crash and the subsequent regulation that came from it by reading a textbook, but it’s the people involved that make it really interesting, that make you want to keep reading when there isn’t gonna be an 11th grade US History test later, and that’s the side of the story that you aren’t going to learn about in school. A story filled with names and dates and regulations could be pretty darn dry and dull, but most of the time I found myself wanting to know more, intrigued by how things would shake out as we got closer and closer to the present day, and this book was written with a very accessible tone and language, so that I never felt too bogged down while reading, or like I was mixing up dates and events in my head, like sometimes happens when reading (less enjoyable) history books.

Who will enjoy “Taming the Street”? US History nerds, of course. It’s quite a niche topic to read for pleasure, isn’t it? As someone who almost exclusively enjoys reading nonfiction and who has a particular interest in US history and government topics, this was extremely up my alley, so if those are your areas of interest as well, I can highly recommend “Taming the Street.”

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House, and the author for the chance to read & review “Taming the Street” prior to publication.

[Robert Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. The New Deal is a fiendishly complex historical topic. On one level it was FDR's response to the Great Depression, but it's so much more than that. FDR and the people around him took advantage of that crisis to bring decades of progressive dreams to fruition, and reform and create much of American life. The New Deal was a batch of reform programs, but it was also a kind of re-founding of the US republic, that impacts pretty much everything. It's so all-encompassing that it's really hard to write about. More comprehensive accounts drown in a fog of acronyms that fail to convey the human drama of what was happening. Henriques has cracked the problem by laser-focusing on one problem, financial regulation, and giving us significant stories and biographies around that development.

By following a single thread, while also briefly acknowledging many of the other titanic reforms that were occurring, and touching on the major events that steered the whole New Deal Program, Henriques provides a digestible history of the era. I was never overwhelmed by the story, and the rich personalities and anecdotes provided did a better job of solidifying the timeline in my head than a couple much more comprehensive histories that I am currently reading. Henriques's approach doesn't just lay out the development of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other regulatory efforts, it provides juicy insight into a wide range of other subjects, from banking culture to the rise of the Kennedy family.

Another aspect that I appreciated is the frequency with which the author highlights the relevance of this story to current events, and current discussions over financial regulation. I was struck, as she intended, by the way that a lot of Republican and Democratic market fundamentalists are currently making the exact same arguments that the corrupt stock manipulators who brought us the Great depression did. In middle age I've come to realize that the Reaganites of both parties are selling us tired and failed explanations. This book helped me more fully realize that they are century-old, tired and failed explanations.

FDR is lionized for his role in fighting and winning the second world war. The more history I learn, the more it seems like the New Deal may have been the more significant accomplishment. If we had more books like this, that engagingly flesh out each of the multitudinous strands of FDR's programs, we would be able to see that more clearly.

[Jack Reidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fight to Regulate American Capitalism

The book reviewed is 'Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR’s Fight to Regulate American Capitalism" by Diana B. Henriques. It was a great history of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s struggle to level the playing field for ordinary Americans interested in investing and saving.

Diana B. Henriques is a financial journalist and well qualified to tell this story. I’d like to thanks both Netgalley and Random House for allowing me to read Taming the Street before publication.

As a small investor, I could be interested in a short article about the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) but would probably not normally read a book that promised to be a detailed history of how the SEC came about. But because I had reviewed '.Becoming FDR'. last year, Random House invited me to try the advanced reader copy (ARC) of Taming the Street via Netgalley. In the hands of this writer, it was a fascinating book.

Before the New Deal, insiders controlled and manipulated the stock market for their benefit and often to the detriment of ordinary Americans. There was very little oversight. What regulation there was, was self-regulation. FDR thought that this needed to change.

Much of the book is about the political struggles to create the SEC and give it the power to make the difference in spite of much opposition. There is also a discussion about the constant pressure to deregulate the world of finance and the resulting dangers.

The author’s Preface to this book is what convinced me to read the rest of the book. I’ll just relate a part the stuck with me. (I hope it is in the final edition). The author mentioned the SEC on Twitter and someone replied that the smart investor had no need for the SEC with all its rules. He could protect himself by reading the information supplied by the company in the 10-K report. As it turns out, the 10-K was not required before SEC. So I hope a the person who thought regulation was not needed reconsidered his views.

The book is a long one (464 pages) but that includes notes, etc. If you don’t think you have the interest to read it all, give it a try and if you still think it is too much, just read the Preface and Epilogue.

Highly recommend for those with an interest in the New Deal or the US economy. Recommended for the general reader.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taming the Street by Diana B Henriques is a thoroughly researched account of FDR trying to reign in a destructive (to democracy anyway) capitalism that is also a page-turner.

We're talking Wall Street, the Securities Exchange Commission, and the government, not usually topics that just make me think I'm going to enjoy reading the book, even if I want to read it to learn about an important historical moment. Yet this book was indeed an enjoyable read. I think, in addition to the relevance to our contemporary situation, the reason this is actually a good read is because we are dealing with the people involved, not just the concepts. This is a human drama, personal in the case of those involved with supporting or opposing the SEC but also personal in what it means for so many regular citizens and their ability to confidently participate in the country's capitalism.

While certainly enjoyable as a history book, it is important because of the cautionary tale it offers us today in trying to wrest control of government back from big business and the cronies willing to sell the populace down the river to line their pockets and pretend they are in power, when in fact they are puppets of the ultra rich.

While I would definitely recommend this to those with an interest in US history, particularly mid 20th century, I think anyone concerned about the growing disparity in income and wealth can learn a lot about what they're fighting against as well as some tactics that worked in the past. We can all learn some valuable lessons here, about our past, our present, and what our future could hold.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sort of classic progressive historiography one doesn't see much these days, with evil financiers fighting the valiant efforts of FDR and his "happy hot dogs" such as Joe Kennedy, Jim Landis, and William Douglas (the first three chairman of the SEC) to regulate Wall Street. The foremost villain, and admittedly a good one, is Dick Whitney, the onetime NYSE chair who was later convicted and imprisoned on a massive embezzlement scheme that nearly ruined several of his friends and even his own brother, to whom he had spread a web of lies.

The portrayal of the main battle as between FDR, Kennedy, Douglas, and Whitney (with Landis portrayed as a weak-willed intermediate force between the others) is somewhat difficult because only FDR stays involved in this struggle through the seven years up until 1940, and only that sporadically. Kennedy is done with the SEC by 1935, and goes onto head the first Maritime Commission and then, of course, become ambassador to the UK. Whitney too has to step down from the chair of the NYSE in 1935 for his underling Charles Gay, and thereafter becomes less of a force until his dramatic denouement in 1938. Douglas is involved periodically throughout, but mainly just for his chairmanship of the SEC from 1937 to 1939. The constant heroizing and villainizing can also get tiresome at times. Nonetheless, the tale is told with such verve and such dramatic characters that it will remain the best tale of the creation of the SEC out there for awhile, even if a reader more interested in policy than people will keep consulting Joel Seligman's The Transformation of Wall Street.

[Ricardas Razgaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As European it was very interesting to know more about the Great depression period in USA and about The New Deal and even more how SEC-Security Exchange Commission was created by FDR- Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, with first chairman Joey Kennedy, the new institution SEC goal was simple, but not easy, to regulate Wall Street including NYSE, stop white collar crime, like intentional bank bankruptcies, pool investment specializations, Ponzi schemes, inside-trading, and plain simply bond stealing from the rightful owners, a case of Dick Whitney the only NYSE president who was sent to prison, for his criminal activities for several decades in Wall Street!

The booming 1920s The JAZZ Age, was booming not for everybody. In the 1920s, government policy was shaped almost entirely by the demands and desires of the very rich, regardless of the consequences for ordinary Americans. While millions of workers struggled, the wealthy grew more prosperous. Dividends in rails and industrials went to 282 percent. By the 1930, the richest 10 percent of Americans owned nearly 90 percent of the private property in the country.

It was really exciting to witness the 1929 and 1937 financial crashes and the Wall Street regulation that came after it in form of SEC.

Big thanks goes to Mr. Dick Whitney for helping to regulate the Wall Street, if it would not be for his white-collar criminal activities, and his brother George Whitney a Partner of J.P. Morgan cover up, what were caught red handed by the SEC, the new financial regulation reform would not be passed.

[Gilda Felt · Rating 5 out of 5]

We’re all aware, or, at least, we should be, of all the good created by the Roosevelt Administration. The CCC, WPA, TVA. Social Security. But less well known are the group of Acts created to rein in the corrupt system that controlled the banks and Wall Street. Under the SEC, acts such as the Glass-Steagall Act, which effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, would make it safer for the less well off to buy stock. Parts of the Act were, ironically, repealed during the Clinton Administration.

The book follows FDR’s efforts, and those who worked to stop him, during mostly his first two terms. It follows the career of Bill Douglas, head of the SEC before becoming a Supreme Court judge; the work of Joe Kennedy, before he became enthralled with the fascist rulers of Germany and Italy. But then the War would come, and interfere with much of what FDR still wanted to do.

There is so much more to this book. It truly does show what can be accomplished by men of honor and dignity. What we could have if we only paid attention. Over the years, the Extreme Right has continued their fight to undo his work, but many of the New Deal programs are still with us. With any luck, they’ll continue to be so.

Is there a bit of hero worship regarding FDR? You betcha

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. A clear illustration of how Wall Street could never be trusted to regulate itself. In terms of some of the other arguments the author is trying to make- they’re a bit more muddled:

Henriques states she set out to write this book because someone on Twitter didn’t realize FDR helped make 10K’s a financial reporting requirement. (There’s no chance people on Twitter will read this book, or learn from it). She describes Dick Whitney as a horrible criminal who proved the need for regulation, but keeps tossing compliments his way about how he helped save short selling and helped keep the NYSE open. So I appreciate the nuance but it does dilute the potency of her argument a bit. And she also tries to use this whole New Deal history as a reminder of why we need to not deregulate the markets today. I think she could have fleshed this point out a bit more, and gotten more specific. There was basically one sentence about credit default swaps, and one sentence about cryptocurrency, for example. So rather than really discussing anything current in detail, the book is more just saying “regulation was good 90 years ago and still is.”

But overall the book is well written, and focuses on an aspect of FDR’s achievements that usually gets glossed over amidst other areas like World War 2. So if you’re interested in the topic maybe worth a read.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a LOT about FDR and his life, and in economics class, we discussed the causes and solutions to the Great Depression, but I've never read a book that concentrated on the Wall Street aspect of the crisis.

While there were a few other players in the game, this book mainly follows the path FDR took when he was governor of New York at the beginning of the Great Depression, to his election to the Presidency. Another prominent figure in the book was Joseph P. Kennedy, father to a president and two senators,

The men worked together to reform finance and the way the stock market worked in order to stabilize the market. The subsequent regulations created assured that something catastrophic could not happen to Wall Street again, although that would prove to be false.

I always enjoy a thoroughly researched and documented book about American history, and this book does not disappoint. It took a while to get through simply because of the intricacy of the story, and I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the stock market crash of 1929 and the attempts made to recover.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House and the author for an Advanced Reader's copy in exchange for an honest review; all opinions expressed are my own.

[Sybil Finemel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism (this review is from an ARC sent to me by Netgalley)
Author: Diana Henriques.
Taming the Street describes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression.
Henriques details the fraudulent practices that precipitated the 1929 crash, including banks knowingly selling investors worthless bonds and investors conspiring to create artificial stock market rallies during which they sold shares at marked up rates. The Roosevelt administration created the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was tasked with regulating over-the-counter stocks, utility holding companies, and the New York Stock Exchange. The main characters overseeing the SEC were Joseph P. Kennedy, first SEC chairman; William O. Douglas, the Yale law professor who succeeded Kennedy as SEC chair; Richard Whitney, who as NYSE president resisted SEC oversight until he was caught embezzling customers’ assets in 1938; and Franklin D. Roosevelt himself was determined to make capitalism work for the everyday person. This is a well-researched book and the author elucidates the issues in a clear and concise way, making the subject matter interesting and fascinating.

[Jacob VanNieulande · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surreal experience reading this during current times when every safety protection and guard rail of the federal government is being aggressively torn off its hinges. Read this at the recommendation of the More Freedom Foundation podcast and I'll say that Robs assessment is 100% accurate. The people pushing crypto on everyone really are doing it as a blatant attempt to step around the New Deals financial reforms. The more I read about this era of American history, the more impressed I become with the foresight of the New Deal coalition and Franklin Roosevelt, a president who I used to not be a fan of once upon a time at a younger age. Reading through this story about 1930s corporate America, i couldn't stop thinking about how contemporary this all feels. Anyways can't wait for us to jump right back into the jungle economy of the 1920s followed by having to relearn all of these lessons from 100 years ago.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

It does a good job telling the creation largely of the SEC by focusing on a combination of FDR, the head of the NYSE, Joe Kennedy, and others. The chapter where the head of the NYSE ends up having been super corrupt is an enthralling page turner. It does a strong job laying out just how unprotected consumers were in the 1920s and early 1930s. A situation that reminds me about an earlier book I read about the history of the FDA and the insane fake food additives we used to allow.

Joe Kennedy also makes for a fascinating character here. I had no idea he played such a key role in getting the SEC going. And his later breaks with Roosevelt over the New Deal makes for a fascinating arc.

[Mike Scheerhorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading through this, and picking up a good bit of knowledge and context of the era and how our modern financial system took shape. The author does a great job of not overcomplicating the in-depth financials like formulas or theories, and giving a high level overview. Definitely makes it more palatable for most readers (though, if you have no knowledge or past reads on finance, you may get confused, and would not recommend starting here).

Only reason it gets 4/5 is I just never had that moment where I truly thought I was learning something I never knew and became extremely interested in the given event/topic.

[Kieran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, while focusing on FDR's financial regulatory efforts (and the cooperation with Wall Street), remains incredibly relevant for what we're experiencing today. This book is well-written, flows well, and I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in the Roosevelt/New Deal era, as well as those with an interest in American financial regulatory efforts. Henriques' book suggests that we haven't necessarily learned from the events of the 1920s/1930s, and she's quite on point with that assumption.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a part of history that I really didn't have much knowledge of, so I appreciated all I learned in this book! It was clearly well-researched and written, and reads like a novel with fascinating characters. I sometimes find history to be too dry, but I felt compelled by this story. It's helpful to have this background on the 1920s and 30s to compare to how capitalism works in our society today. I won a free copy from Goodreads.

[purplepersonerin]

i wanted to crawl inside this book and personally strangle dick whitney which is weird bc im def not a history girlie

really great writing and made me gain an ounce of respect for fdr. lets go fdr gang

cant really validate any of the knowledge im js a slug but this was written extremely well and i learned a lot and now see the sec as the underfunded economic hand of democracy so thats great 😊

[Katie Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply an excellent overview of the business culture that led to the necessary governmental oversight of the stock market. You will see many parallels to today’s economy, for better or worse. History is truly a cautionary tale for the present.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book that chronicles the formation of the SEC and its battle for Wall Street. It make s a fundamental and compelling argument for why markets cannot regulate themselves and the necessity for government involvement that continues to this day.

[Arpit Mathur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly not the most exciting topic, and I am not sure who or what had me pick up this book, but just such a good read, especially considering the zeal towards deregulation these days. Also written really well.

[Daniel Greenspan · Rating 5 out of 5]

History forgotten is history repeated

Where are our latter-day Pecoras, Douglases, Roosevelts? The positive impact of the reforms and programs of the New Deal, particularly the contributions to financial market regulation, cannot be overstated.

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, informative book.

[Abhishek Kona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Droning, some times too opinionated. The matter is good, but it too long written in sprawling sentences. The author thinks this is intriguing, but I do not.

[Cwelshhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very approachable and timely