The Governance Revolution

Chapter 3 Post–World War I Developments

Through the 1920s, however, power continued to be concentrated in fewer hands as corporations issued shares with multiple classes of voting rights, while other shares were sold with no votes at all, salable in the post–World War I economic boom of the 1920s. More and more ordinary people, those wage earners we discussed above, were looking to the stock market to save the new money they were earning. The law did not, however, guarantee good information or fair terms.

The first three decades of the 20th century saw economic output surge with electrification, mass production and motorized farm machinery. Due to the rapid growth in productivity there was excess production capacity and the work week was reduced. ...