Securities Exchange Act
Congress passed the Securities Exchange Act in June 1934, creating the SEC and extending the previous year's Securities Act from issuance to secondary trading. Public companies were required to file audited annual and quarterly financials, register their securities, and disclose insider holdings. Market manipulation, wash trading, and pools of the kind that fueled the 1920s were made federal offenses. Joseph Kennedy, a prior operator of those same pools, was appointed first SEC chair. The regime remains the foundation of US securities law.
Joseph Kennedy — a notorious market manipulator himself — was FDR's first SEC chair. 'Set a thief to catch a thief,' Roosevelt said. Kennedy's reforms remain the foundation of US securities law today.
04 · SEC & Regulated Media
FDR's reforms imposed disclosure on markets and licensing on broadcast. The SEC required public companies to tell the truth. The Fed published minutes — but with a five-year delay. Secrecy became official policy.
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