The Birth of the NRA

No, not the National Rifle Association, but FDR's NRA.http://en.wikipedia.org.   

From the 1930 blog, an editorial from the Wall Street Journal:

Editorial by T. Woodlock: It's clear the doctrine of laissez faire, laissez aller that has guided “classical” economists for a century, is now obsolete; the world economic system is so complex and interdependent that some coordination is needed. However, this doesn't mean that governments should do the planning, as is suggested anew with “each succeeding depression in recent times.” A better alternative would be, despite our antitrust laws and the vestigial attitude behind them, to find a way for industries to achieve better coordination and control, [emphasis added] without surrender of individual initiative.

That's for all those conservatives who blame FDR for cartels--the impetus came from Wall Street.

PS: an added nugget from the same post--I guess we are making progress:

Friday the 13th passed without any untoward occurences, though in Wall Street's tradition of superstition, brokers report hundreds of their customers won't trade that day and some get out of the market the day before.