The Speculation Economy How Finance Triumphed Over Industry

In this groundbreaking book, Lawrence E. Mitchell traces the origins of modern business's obsession with stock price to the first decade of the 20th century.American businesses today are obsessed with the price of their stock. How did this situation come about? When did the stock market become the driver of the American economy? Lawrence E. Mitchell identifies the moment in American history when finance triumphed over industry. He shows how the birth of the giant modern corporation spurred the rise of the stock market and how, by the dawn of the 1920s, the stock market left behind its business origins to become the very reason for the creation of business itself."A fascinating account of the early 20th century emergence of a stock-market-oriented economy." (BusinessWeek)

Lawrence E. Mitchell is Theodore Rinehart Professor of Business Law at The George Washington University Law School. After practicing corporate law for several years in New York, he entered academia and has been a leading corporate and business law scholar for twenty years. One of the founders of the progressive corporate law movement, named after his 1995 edited collection, Progressive Corporate Law, Mitchell has written extensively on a variety of topics ranging from corporate governance and the stock market to the history of anti-Semitism in the New York bar. His books include Stacked Deck: A Story of Selfishness in America and Corporate Irresponsibility: America’s Newest Export, as well as casebooks on corporate law and corporate finance. At George Washington, Mitchell created the Sloan Program for the Study of Business in Society to support multidisciplinary research in corporate law, and the Institute for International Corporate Governance and Accountability to explore a range of issues arising from globalizing capitalism. He is a sought-after speaker in academic and nonacademic settings, and a frequent commentator in the news media. Mitchell holds a B.A. from Williams College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Preface
Prologue
Chapter One: The Principal of Cooperation
Chapter Two: Sanctuary
Chapter Three: Transcendental Value
Chapter Four: The New Property
Chapter Five: The Complete Whole
Chapter Six: Much Ado About Nothing
Chapter Seven: Panic and Progress
Chapter Eight: The Speculation Economy
Chapter Nine: The End of Reform
Chapter Ten: Manufacturing Securities
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author