Securities Act Enacted: New Deal Ends Wall Street Chaos
Congress passed the Securities Exchange Act on June 6, 1934, creating the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market and prevent the fraud and manipulation that contributed to the 1929 crash. The act required public companies to file regular financial reports, prohibited insider trading, and established margin requirements for stock purchases. President Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy, himself a former stock market speculator, as the SEC's first chairman, reasoning that it took a fox to guard the henhouse. Kennedy proved effective, imposing regulations that his Wall Street friends grudgingly accepted because they came from one of their own. The SEC has since become the primary regulator of American capital markets, overseeing over $90 trillion in securities transactions annually.
June 6, 1934
92 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on June 6
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