Public Policy: Scrutiny on the Street

Not since New York Stock Exchange President Richard Whitney was packed off to jail in the 1930s had Wall Street come under such withering scrutiny. It was bad enough that the SEC was probing the American Stock Exchange after a series of scandals (TIME, May 5 et seq.), even more disturbing that SEC investigators were working overtime on more cases of market fraud and manipulation than ever before. But last week SEC Chairman William L. Gary suggested that the whole barrel of apples had better be tumbled out and examined. Testifying before a House subcommittee, Gary urged a...