History and Evolution of the Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created at the conclusion of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee’s 1932–1934 investigation of stock exchange practices, usually called the Pecora Hearings, in recognition of the decisive role played by the committee’s counsel, Ferdinand Pecora.(Macey, 2010) Between September 1, 1929, and July 1, 1932, the value of all stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange shrank from a total of nearly $90 billion to just under $16 billion, a loss of over 80 percent.(Macey, 2010) In a comparable period, bonds listed on the New York Stock Exchange declined from a value of $49 billion to $31 billion.(Macey, 2010) These figures, staggering as they were, fully gauge the extent of the 1929–1932 stock market crash.(Wiesen, 1979) During the post-World War I decade, approximately $50 billion of new securities were sold in the United States approximately half, or $25 billion, would prove near or totally worthless.(Wiesen, 1979) Leading securities, including General Electric, Sears, Roebuck, and U.S. Steel common stock, would lose over 90 percent of their value between selected dates in 1929 and 1932.(Zimmer, 2009) Formally, the purpose of Pecora’s stock exchange hearings was to determine why these staggering decreases in security values had occurred and to propose legislation to prevent another stock market crash. (Wiesen, 1979) The Pecora hearings also had an obvious political purpose. During the preceding twelve years, a majority of the country’s voters had supported the relaxed economic policies supported by Calvin Coolidge’s often-quoted remark “This is a business country … and it wants a business government.”(Zimmer, 2009) The revelations of the Pecora hearings were intended to diminish that faith in the nation’s financial institutions. No other