Taming The Street: The Old Guard, The New Deal, And Fdr'S Fight To Regulate American Capitalism,New

The extraordinary (New York Times Book Review, Editors Choice) story of FDRs fight for the soul of American capitalismfrom awardwinning journalist Diana B. Henriques, author of The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of TrustI thought I was well versed in the New Deal, but it turns out I knew next to nothing. Diana Henriquess chronicle is meticulous, illuminating, and riveting.Kurt Andersen, New York Times bestselling author of Evil Geniuses and FantasylandA BLOOMBERG BEST BOOK OF THE YEARTaming the Street describes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. With deep reporting and vivid storytelling, Diana B. Henriques takes readers back to a time when Americas financial landscape was a jungle ruled by the titans of vast wealth, largely unrestrained by government. Roosevelt ran for office in 1932 vowing to curb that ruthless capitalism and make the world of finance safer for ordinary savers and investors. His deeply personal campaign to tame the Street is one of the great untold dramas in American history.Success in this political struggle was far from certain for FDR and his New Deal allies, who included the political dynasty builder Joseph P. Kennedy and the future Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. Wall Streets old guard, led by New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney, fought every new rule to the last legal ditch. That clashbetween two sharply different visions of financial power and federal responsibilityhas shaped how other peoples money is managed in the United States to this day.As inequality once again reaches Jazz Age levels, Henriques brings to life a time when the system workedan idealistic moment when ordinary Americans knew what had to be done and supported leaders who could do it. A vital history and a riveting truelife thriller, Taming the Street raises an urgent and troubling question: What does capitalism owe to the common good?