ENDORSEMENTS

“Larry Mitchell's new work is full of fresh insight about the rise of what he calls ‘American corporate capitalism.’  Anyone interested in the development of our modern financial markets will be richly rewarded by a careful reading.”

— Harvey J. Goldschmid, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia University, former Member, United States Securities and Exchange Commission


"An impressive work of legal, economic and historical scholarship that will enrich today’s debate over corporate accountability and regulatory policy."

— Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy and co-author of The People's Business, Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy


"In The Speculation Economy, Professor Mitchell paints the historical backdrop against which the perennial problems of securities fraud and corporate governance continue to play out. His provocative thesis is that the development of the modern American public corporation was not an organic process but rather occurred almost overnight at an identifiable point in time and as a result of identifiable political and economic forces. It is a story of financial evolution as punctuated equilibrium rather than phyletic gradualism. By identifying the forces that shaped the Big Bang of American corporate capitalism, Professor Mitchell’s important new work helps us understand the forces that continue to shape the dominant form of economic actor of our time."

— Stephen M. Bainbridge, William D. Warren Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law


"Professor Lawrence Mitchell's The Speculation Economy: How Finance Triumphed Over Industry is an important book.  Systematically he highlights that two of the most pivotal events in our history of modern finance were the rise of Wall Street and investment banking as a key factor in American capitalism and the federal government response to the ever more complex role of finance capitalism. Mitchell's writing is graceful, comprehensive, and ultimately persuasive that as significant as the story of trusts and the trustbusters has been, the rise of finance capitalism and ultimately its federal coordination through such agencies as the Federal Reserve system and the Securities and Exchange Commission may be even more important."

— Joel Seligman, President, University of Rochester and author, The Transformation of Wall Street.