Abstract

Finance: The Bountiful Barons of Wall Street

It is a fine thing to be a big shot on Wall Street. The opportunities for self-enrichment are quite unusual. Economist Charles E. Mitchell, in the days before the U.S. Senate investigation, furnished a good illustration of what a bright young man can do when he keeps his fingers tightly on his stockholders' money. Mitchell's reward was about $3,000,000 in bonuses during 1927, 1928, and 1929 and, when bonuses were out of order, an increase in annual salary in 1931 from $100,000 to $200,000. But Mitchell's cleverness in making the most of his advantages was quite overshadowed in resourcefulness and breadth of vision, if not in the total amount of reward, by the activities of his rival big shot on Wall Street, economist Albert H. Wiggin of the Chase Bank.