Financial History Issue 118 (Summer 2016) | Page 39

HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT FINANCIAL HISTORY? The First SEC? continued from page 19 TRIVIAQUIZ By Bob Shabazian Library of Congress Library of Congress  1. What city in the western United States once served as a US Mint and later became a state capital? Carter Glass abuses and widespread fraud associated with the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Ironically, both William McAdoo (D. Cal.) and Carter Glass (D. Va.) were serving in the Senate when that legislation was passed in 1933 and 1934. McAdoo’s political and social life were otherwise notable. He had twice been a viable presidential candidate before joining the Senate. He divorced Eleanor Wilson in 1934 and, at age 71, married a 26-year-old nurse. McAdoo fathered nine children from three marriages. He died at the age of 77 unrecognized for his role in laying the foundation for the laws that still govern America’s securities markets.  Jerry W. Markham is a Professor of Law at the Florida International University College of Law in Miami.  3. What is the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel?  4. On average, how long does a $20 bill remain in circulation?  5. In the mid-1800s, brokers on the New York Stock Exchange were fined for standing on chairs or tables on the trading floor. How much was the fine?  6. Electronic transactions accounting for trillions of dollars’ worth of securities orders are processed each day through a data center in northern New Jersey. What is it called and where is it located?  7. In what state did the first US gold rush take place?  8. Approximately how much currency does the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produce each day?  9. In what years did the two largest 20th century stock market crashes occur? 10. Who invented the first stock ticker? Sources Curtis, Frederic H. The CIC of the Federal Reserve Board. Address Before the City Treasures and Collectors Association of Massachusetts at Boston. March 23, 1918. Markham, Jerry W. A Financial History of the United States: From J.P. Morgan to the Institutional Investors (1900–1970). New York: M.E. Sharpe. 2002. 1. Carson City, Nevada  2. Since 1928  3. 666  4. Four years  5. $1  6. Equinix, in Secaucus, NJ  7. North Carolina  8. $300 million  9. 1929 and 1987  10. Edward A. Calahan, in 1867 concluded, sought the retention of the CIC. Those bankers advocated continuance of the CIC in order to allow federal monitoring of capital raising efforts. That review would have had two goals. First, it would have assured that new securities issues were compatible with returning the country to a peacetime footing. Second, the bankers thought that review by the CIC was needed to suppress fraudulent offerings of securities to the public. Carter Glass, a founder of the Federal Reserve Board, became Treasury Secretary in December 1918. He also sought federal anti-fraud legislation to suppress the sales of worthless securities, but the legislation sought by Glass and the CIC was not enacted. After a sharp increase in speculation in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson again asked Congress to pass a federal securities law. He thought legislation was necessary to stop excessive speculation and to curtail fraudulent securities promotions that continued to fleece investors of millions of dollars. Several bills were thereafter introduced in Congress to regulate the sale of securities at the federal level, but the effort failed. The enactment of federal legislation imposing federal regulation over the securities markets would have to await the President Woodrow Wilson  2. Harriet Tubman’s portrait is about to re