The irrepressible gentlemen on Capitol Hill were not so reticent. In February and March of 1928, the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency held hearings on brokers’ loans and, from March to May, its House counterpart opened its own investigation into stock market speculation—overall a spectacle somehow both embarrassing and uplifting. It was painful to watch the good senators flailing around trying to understand the workings of a complicated financial system and hurling foolish questions at the expert witnesses. But there was also something admirable as they voiced the outrage of the common
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