Author: Matt Levine (Matt Levine)
Author Introduction:
Matt Levine is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He was a Goldman Sachs investment banker, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and an editor at Dealbreaker.
The following is the original text:
First, let me briefly summarize the history of the public stock market in the United States:
In the early years, anyone could raise funds for a project by selling shares to the public, and many did so, often accompanied by false promises.
This phenomenon peaked in the 1920s, as people rushed to buy stocks and borrowed money to speculate on leverage. Subsequently, the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression arrived. To restore market confidence, Congress passed a series of laws, particularly the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.