ABSTRACT
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was considered a nonessential agency during World War II and was moved to Philadelphia, where it conducted its work out of the Pennsylvania Athletic Club. The SEC claimed that the purchases for the purpose of inflating the share price in order to boost the offering. The sharp rise in commodity prices and speculation by government officials and foreign traders resulted in the creation of a select committee of Congress that investigated commodity trading. The Commodity Exchange Authority (CEA) found that the collapse in cotton prices was accentuated by the liquidation of thinly margined speculative accounts and unwarranted extensions of credit to speculative traders. The CEA also found that many of the traders attracted to the Chiago Board of Trade (CBOT) by low margins remained with that exchange after margins were equalized among the other cotton exchanges. The price and wage control program during the Korean War also led to a constitutional crisis.
