Editing Wall Street (section)

====Regulation====
[[File:Crowd outside nyse.jpg|thumb|upright|A crowd at Wall and Broad Streets after the 1929 crash, with the [[New York Stock Exchange Building]] on the right. The majority of people are congregating in Wall Street on the left between the "House of Morgan" ([[23 Wall Street]]) and [[Federal Hall National Memorial]] (26 Wall Street).]]
September 1929 was the peak of the stock market.<ref name="The world in depression 1929–1939">The world in depression 1929–1939</ref> October 3, 1929, was when the market started to slip, and it continued throughout the week of October 14.<ref name="The world in depression 1929–1939" />
In October 1929, renowned [[Yale University|Yale]] economist [[Irving Fisher]] reassured worried investors that their "money was safe" on Wall Street.<ref name="guardian20050521">{{cite news |first=Larry |last=Elliott |title=Going for Brokers |newspaper=The Guardian |date=May 21, 2005 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview11 |access-date=January 15, 2011 |archive-date=October 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028092343/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview11 |url-status=live }}</ref> A few days later, on October 24,<ref name="The world in depression 1929–1939" /> stock values plummeted. The [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|stock market crash of 1929]] ushered in the [[Great Depression]], in which a quarter of working people were unemployed, with soup kitchens, mass foreclosures of farms, and falling prices.<ref name="guardian20050521" /> During this era, development of the Financial District stagnated, and Wall Street "paid a heavy price" and "became something of a backwater in American life".<ref name="guardian20050521" />

During the [[New Deal]] years, as well as the 1940s, there was much less focus on Wall Street and finance. The government clamped down on the practice of buying equities based only on credit, but these policies began to ease. From 1946 to 1947, stocks could not be purchased "[[Margin (finance)|on margin]]", meaning that an investor had to pay 100% of a stock's cost without taking on any loans.<ref name="time19600808" /> However, this margin requirement was reduced four times before 1960, each time stimulating a mini-rally and boosting volume, and when the [[Federal Reserve]] reduced the margin requirements from 90% to 70%.<ref name="time19600808" /> These changes made it somewhat easier for investors to buy stocks on credit.<ref name="time19600808">{{cite magazine |title=STOCK MARKET MARGINS: The Federal Reserve v. Wall Street |magazine=Time Magazine |date=August 8, 1960 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869769,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022231011/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,869769,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 22, 2007 |access-date=January 15, 2011}}</ref> The growing national economy and prosperity led to a recovery during the 1960s, with some down years during the early 1970s in the aftermath of the [[Vietnam War]]. Trading volumes climbed; in 1967, according to ''[[Time Magazine]]'', volume hit 7.5&nbsp;million shares a day which caused a "traffic jam" of paper with "batteries of clerks" working overtime to "clear transactions and update customer accounts".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Wall Street: Bob Cratchit Hours |magazine=Time Magazine |date=August 18, 1967 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841001,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215152500/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841001,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2008 |access-date=January 15, 2011}}</ref>

In 1973, the financial community posted a collective loss of $245 million, which spurred temporary help from the government.<ref name="time19730924">{{cite magazine |title=WALL STREET: Help for Broke Brokers |magazine=Time Magazine |date=September 24, 1973 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907961,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018211248/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907961,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 18, 2008 |access-date=January 15, 2011}}</ref> Reforms were instituted; the [[U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission|Securities & Exchange Commission]] eliminated fixed commissions, which forced "brokers to compete freely with one another for investors' business".<ref name="time19730924" /> In 1975, the SEC threw out the [[New York Stock Exchange|NYSE]]'s "Rule 394" which had required that "most stock transactions take place on the Big Board's floor", in effect freeing up trading for electronic methods.<ref name="time19760830">{{cite magazine |title=WALL STREET: Banks As Brokers |magazine=Time Magazine |date=August 30, 1976 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918271,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050111223136/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918271,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 11, 2005 |access-date=January 15, 2011}}</ref> In 1976, banks were allowed to buy and sell stocks, which provided more competition for [[stockbroker]]s.<ref name="time19760830" /> Reforms had the effect of lowering prices overall, making it easier for more people to participate in the stock market.<ref name="time19760830" /> Broker commissions for each stock sale lessened, but volume increased.<ref name="time19730924" />

The [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan years]] were marked by a renewed push for [[capitalism]] and [[business]], with national efforts to de-regulate industries such as [[telecommunications]] and [[aviation]]. The economy resumed upward growth after a period in the early 1980s of languishing. A report in ''[[The New York Times]]'' described that the flushness of money and growth during these years had spawned a [[drug culture]] of sorts, with a rampant acceptance of [[cocaine]] use although the overall percent of actual users was most likely small. A reporter wrote:

{{blockquote|The Wall Street drug dealer looked like many other successful young female executives. Stylishly dressed and wearing designer sunglasses, she sat in her 1983 Chevrolet Camaro in a no-parking zone across the street from the [[140 Broadway|Marine Midland Bank branch]] on lower Broadway. The customer in the passenger seat looked like a successful young businessman. But as the dealer slipped him a heat-sealed plastic envelope of cocaine and he passed her cash, the transaction was being watched through the sunroof of her car by Federal drug agents in a nearby building. And the customer&nbsp;— an undercover agent himself -was learning the ways, the wiles and the conventions of Wall Street's drug subculture.|Peter Kerr in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1987.<ref>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Kerr |title=AGENTS TELL OF DRUG'S GRIP ON WALL STREET |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 18, 1987 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DC153CF93BA25757C0A961948260 |access-date=January 15, 2011 |archive-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108122103/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/18/nyregion/agents-tell-of-drug-s-grip-on-wall-street.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

[[File:1 Wall Street.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[1 Wall Street]], at Wall Street and Broadway]]

In 1987, the stock market plunged,<ref name="usatoday20011024" /> and, in the relatively brief recession following, the surrounding area lost 100,000 jobs according to one estimate.<ref name="nyt19960128">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/28/nyregion/new-yorkers-ghosts-teapot-dome-fabled-wall-street-offices-are-now-apartments-but.html|title=NEW YORKERS & CO.: The Ghosts of Teapot Dome;Fabled Wall Street Offices Are Now Apartments, but Do Not Yet a Neighborhood Make|first=Michael|last=Cooper|date=January 28, 1996|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 14, 2010|archive-date=October 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028135150/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/28/nyregion/new-yorkers-ghosts-teapot-dome-fabled-wall-street-offices-are-now-apartments-but.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Since telecommunications costs were coming down, banks and [[brokerage firm]]s could move away from the Financial District to more affordable locations.<ref name="nyt19960128" /> One of the firms looking to move away was the NYSE. In 1998, the NYSE and the city struck a $900 million deal which kept the NYSE from moving across the river to [[Jersey City, New Jersey|Jersey City]]; the deal was described as the "largest in city history to prevent a corporation from leaving town".<ref>{{cite news |first=Charles V. |last=Bagli |title=City and State Agree to $900 Million Deal to Keep New York Stock Exchange |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 23, 1998 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/23/nyregion/city-and-state-agree-to-900-million-deal-to-keep-new-york-stock-exchange.html?src=pm |access-date=January 15, 2011 |archive-date=May 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518044139/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/23/nyregion/city-and-state-agree-to-900-million-deal-to-keep-new-york-stock-exchange.html?src=pm |url-status=live }}</ref>