In the spring of 1933, many Americans blamed Wall Street for the financial havoc caused by the Great Depression. Millions had lost investments through industrial bankruptcies, foreclosures, bank failures, bond defaults and collapsing stock prices.
That sentiment intensified in May as the Senate probed the crash and its aftermath. Emerging documentation of insider favoritism and fraud "created a cyclone of outrage" and generated broad public support for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's financial agenda.
