Undue Influence

CHARLES R. GEISST is the author of fifteen other books, including Wheels of Fortune: The History of Speculation from Scandal to Respectability (Wiley), Deals of the Century: Wall Street, Mergers, and the Making of Modern America (Wiley), and the bestsellers Wall Street: A History and 100 Years of Wall Street. Previously, he worked as a capital markets analyst and investment banker at several investment banks in London, and has also taught both political science and finance. He has published trade articles in magazines and newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Newsday, and Euromoney.

"…incisive explanation of various consiracy theories" (Gulf Business, May 2005) The Glass-Steagall Act, separating commercial banks from investment banks, was passed in 1933 to prevent banks from risking depositors’ funds on the still-shaky stock market. It was repealed in 1999, when gambling other people’s money on the stock market was considered the height of financial probity. In this engaging history of Glass-Steagall, Geisst (Wall Street: A History) surveys the 70 years leading to this ideological sea change, as the widespread Depression-era populist suspicion of Wall Street subsided, to be replaced with the pro-business dogma of the Reagan era and the New Economy bubble. Formal repeal, Geisst shows, was preceded by decades during which big commercial banks, hungry for a slice of the lucrative investment banking business, increasingly flouted Glass-Steagall restrictions with the connivance of ideologically sympathetic Federal Reserve regulators. The vast sums banks have spent on lobbying and campaign contributions, and the cushy Wall Street jobs awaiting government officials who switch sides, make Geisst wonder whether "the gamekeepers and the poachers had all joined the same club." Geisst provides a lucid guide to the financial issues involved and a colorful account of decades-long political debates and legislative wranglings, while raising troubling questions about the direction of public policy. (Dec.) (Publishers Weekly, November 15, 2004)

• Introduction 1Chapter One Distrust of Wall Street in the 1920s 11Chapter Two The Assault on Wall Street 59Chapter Three Continuing the Assault 109Chapter Four Three Decades of Slow Change 149Chapter Five The Reagan Years 189Chapter Six Deregulation in the 1990s 239Postscript Is Deregulation Working? 287Bibliography 291Notes 295Index 305