Prior to the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 1913 Pujo Committee determined that 180 people were managing more than $22B—a large slice of the entire nation's wealth—and recommended extensive regulations.

Known as the 'Pecora Hearings,' the widely covered trials following the stock market crash of 1929 generated massive public outrage that forced Congress to impose stricter regulations on Wall Street.

The Securities and Exchange Commission was created during the Great Depression to restore public trust in financial markets after the 1929 crash.

Watch former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler's 'Eras Tour' for the agency's 90th anniversary, a look back on the pivotal moments in the agency's history.

When the New York Stock Exchange was started in 1792, traders would meet both outside on the street and in coffee shops to do business.

Passed in 2010 in the fallout of the Great Recession, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was the most significant financial reform since the Great Depression.

After Bernie Madoff's nearly $65B Ponzi scheme was exposed, the Securities and Exchange Commission was widely criticized for being inattentive and overly lax for not having caught the fraud earlier.

Read a profile of Ferdinand Pecora, the lawyer behind the colorful, extensive investigations into the stock market crash of 1929.

Read a breakdown of the different financial and banking regulatory bodies in the US, including the SEC.

Watch a breakdown of 'The Volcker Rule,' which stopped banks from being able to make trades with client money and is one of the most controversial financial regulations to date.

Modern antitrust law was created to combat the Standard Oil Trust

John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust enabled him to evade laws against a single corporation buying stock in another. His centralized board of directors held stock in many different oil companies under his control, allowing Rockefeller to eventually monopolize the oil refining industry. Efforts to regulate and prevent the Standard Oil Trust's monopoly became known as "antitrust" laws.

The New York Stock Exchange wouldn't have been made if not for municipal bond sales

The Funding Act of 1790 nationalized and consolidated the debt held by the 13 colonies to be sold off in the form of bonds.

The Dodd-Frank Act increased banks' capital requirements and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

JP Morgan Jr. once angered the nation with his zero-dollar tax bill

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, Congress learned that Morgan and his banking partners had avoided paying any federal income tax in 1931 and 1932. By claiming their losses in the stock market, they seemingly erased what they owed.

Largely considered to be the inspiration for Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street,' Ivan Boesky was one of the most high-profile white-collar criminals and faced a $100M fine for insider trading in 1986.

The first US stock exchange dates back to the 1790s in Philadelphia

Only two years after that stock exchange in Philadelphia started, the largest stock exchange in the US to date was created: the New York Stock Exchange.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the Fed began a program of quantitative easing

This program injected trillions of dollars of new money into financial markets to stimulate the economy. The move catalyzed an 11-year bull run and was repeated during the pandemic. Experts argue such power could worsen wealth inequality and contribute to bubbles in housing and finance.

Read about the history of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first law to ban monopolistic behavior

In its later years, Standard Oil formed a business trust that reflected the company's exponential growth. Politicians wanted to prevent such trusts and used the Sherman Antitrust Act to force Standard Oil to break up.

Joseph Kennedy Sr., President John F. Kennedy's father, became the first chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission in 1934.

Central banking in the US has had a fraught political history

That history includes its doomed early efforts in the First and Second National Banks, as well as its failure to address the worst financial period in US history, the Great Depression.

The history of Wall Street as a financial center dates back to the 1700s, beginning with the establishment of the New York Stock Exchange and New York City's first official slave market.

The Federal Reserve Act's foundation was laid in a secretive meeting disguised as a duck hunt at the world's most prestigious club, the exclusive Jekyll Island Club in Georgia.

No institution wields more power in US finance than the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US—but opinion polls indicate that most Americans don't know what it does.

The Federal Reserve is the most powerful financial institution in the US

The Fed controls the money supply, determines interest rates, and regulates the banking system. Established in 1913 after a volatile series of financial panics, the central bank has managed to retain its legitimacy despite broad critiques against its obscure and independent decision process.

To avoid a total collapse of the housing market, the US government took control of the two leading mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Get the inside story of the duck hunt that birthed the Federal Reserve

Pseudo-duck hunters, private train cars in Hoboken, and a thrilling work week over Thanksgiving 1910—all and more are featured in the wild story of how a group of fed-up bankers and lawmakers tried to create an enduring central bank for the US. Records of the meeting managed to remain hidden for decades.

Famed American investor Jesse Livermore made millions when the stock market crashed in 1929

Livermore made his first major short against rail company Union Pacific in 1906, coincidentally before an earthquake in San Francisco, which ultimately tanked share prices. During a financial panic the next year, JP Morgan reportedly asked Livermore to increase his long-term investments to restore hope and restabilize the market—which Livermore did. However, Livermore began betting against the market in 1929, sensing that stocks were too hot, and was one of the few people to benefit from the 1929 stock crash.

The history of bankruptcy in the US dates back to the signing of the Constitution

In 1787, this founding document gave Congress the right to establish nationwide bankruptcy laws. Legislators took advantage of that power in 1800 when they passed the Bankruptcy Act of 1800, the first comprehensive bankruptcy law at the federal level.

How JPMorgan Chase became America's biggest bank

From the railroad and steel consolidations brokered by John Pierpont Morgan on Wall Street more than a century ago, to the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the financial crisis, and Jamie Dimon’s leadership, J.P. Morgan Chase has been at the center of finance for more than a century.

Commonly referred to as the 'bank bailout,' the Troubled Asset Relief Program disbursed $443B in an attempt to keep the financial system solvent.

Listen to the methods and strategy of the secretive S&P 500 selection committee

Stocks are added to the S&P 500 by a secret selection committee that meets regularly to assess which companies can remain in the index, which companies need to be added, and which companies no longer meet the criteria. The members of the committee used to be public, but S&P Global decided to keep its members confidential after companies sent packages, letters, and gifts to try to make it into the index.

BlackRock played an integral role in the Federal Reserve's response to the Great Recession, managing about $30B of hard-to-sell Bear Stearns assets on behalf of the New York Fed.

Early Americans hated the idea of a central bank

After a series of economic panics induced by a lack of reserve cash at regional banks, the architects of today’s Federal Reserve opted to emphasize the goal of the bank as a reserve at the federal level—thus creating the lasting name.

The S&P 500 selection committee has strict rules around adding a company to the index

While the decision to add a company to the index is ultimately up to the selection committee, any prospective company has to meet some criteria to be considered. To join, the company must have been profitable for the last four quarters, must have a market capitalization exceeding $22.7B, and meet certain requirements around tradeable stock availability (or float).

Before Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008 with more than $600B in debt, the Federal Reserve tried to orchestrate a private deal to save the then-fourth-largest investment bank in the US.

A 1954 Senate subcommittee investigated the comics industry, believing it was corrupting young readers.

The origin and history of stock exchanges

When were stocks first sold? Though debt was first sold in Venice in the 14th century, stocks proper began in the Netherlands. To fund its spice trade across the world in 1602, the Dutch East India Company sold stocks to individual investors, a novel approach to raising funds. It was the Dutch West India Company that founded New York—the site of some of the world’s greatest stock exchanges. Listen to a concise historical overview here.

A history of stock exchanges, from Venitain merchants to modern day

While the idea of stock exchanges—markets where securities can be bought and sold—is mostly synonymous with Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and other modern markets, places to buy and sell financial instruments have a long history....