Spring, 1932

The committee shattered the image of the investment banker as a man of probity whose first concern was the welfare or his customers and who operated in an institution that was a model of fair play...[It] was revealed that the most respected men on Wall Street had rigged pools, had profited by pegging bonds prices artificially high, and had lined their pockets with fantastic bonuses. The leading financial houses...invited insiders to purchase securities at a price much below that paid by the public...The bankers seemed bereft of a sense of obligation even to their own institution.

-William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932-1940