The Panic of 1907 settled moral legitimacy in favor of elite speculators

Evidence

By the time of the Panic of 1907, the speculative imagination of market pits had triumphed over that of grassroots publics. That year’s tumultuous events seemed to conclusively settle the issue of speculation’s moral legitimacy, marking the death of unincorporated bucket shops in Chicago, and in the rest of the country as well. The sole concession of futures traders had been a modest acceptance to inject some rationality into their dealings with uncertainty—which would have to be arbitrarily evidenced by showing they had at least “contemplated” a corporeal delivery of underlying assets “in their minds,” even if that delivery actually never happened (Levy 2006). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 126

Categorization

• CANDY: The absurd compromise that futures traders only had to ‘contemplate’ delivery of underlying assets ‘in their minds’ is a striking, tweetable detail.
• XREF: connects to: Moral panics recruit ordinary citizens as primary censure agents; Moral panics can reshape law and social policy; Moral panics can produce long-lasting changes in society. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 55 (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Moral panics recruit ordinary citizens as primary censure agents; Moral panics can reshape law and social policy; Moral panics can produce long-lasting changes in society. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 55 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Moral panic theory explains how state actors manufacture outsized threats #complicates (0.73)