Louis Dembitz BrandeisCritiques

Oddly still seems in many ways relevant after the financial crisis...

The work is a group of ten essays or articles, originally published serially in Harper’s Weekly magazine. They were all written before the first was published in 1913, and so reflect one coherent structure. Brandeis reports the impact of stock and ownership creation through investment banking firms, the making of big business by buying out smaller ones, the formation of trusts in rail, steel, oil, and banking.

While many of these details were contained in the Pujo and Armstrong reports by the U.S. congress and New York legislature, Brandeis made a simplified view for the public and contributed both momentum and detail to the trend towards the FTC, expansion of the ICC’s role, and the Clayton Act of 1914. It also looked towards the income tax and Federal Reserve Act.

There are three other things that are made apparent. First that there is a degree of fraud and slowing of business in creating the trusts. Second, Brandeis really favors big government and a certain degree of redistribution of wealth as he later demonstrated in his supreme court career Lastly he outlines later actions taken in setting up things like the SEC and positions himself strongly in the inflation, paper money and new progressive politics.

Overall, a worthwhile read if you are interested in the left-right or government vs. individualist conflicts. You may or may not agree with Brandeis, but he does think and write clearly.