The Temporary National Economic Committee was established by a joint resolution of Congress on June 16, 1938 and operated until its defunding on April 3, 1941. The TNEC's function was to study the monopoly powers and to report to Congress with its findings.
One of the many firms brought in for questioning was Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. who later employed Prescott Bush, grandfather of U.S. President G.W. Bush.
Many records of the TNEC are still under seal according to the US National Archives:
As specified by the SEC, no one, except government officials for official purposes, may have access to records created and filed by the SEC on behalf of the TNEC, except for the following: certain records relating to the insurance study, consisting of replies to formal questionnaires (but not including replies to questionnaires sent to state supervisory officials and replies to the questionnaire of February 9, 1940, to life insurance agents); exhibits, including rate books and form insurance policies; and all conventional-form annual statements.
According to Irving Katz's 1969 article in the Business History Review the TNEC's official report was "valuable, if one-sided".
[edit] References
- "Economic States". Time Magazine, Oct. 24, 1938.
- Records of the Temporary National Economic Committee
- Irving Katz review of, Partners in Banking: A historical portrait of a great private bank Brown Brothers Harriman Co., John A. Kouwenhoven, Business History Review, 1968
- "Publications of the Temporary National Economic Committee". The American Economic Review, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1941), pp. 347-350.
[edit] Further reading
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Recommendations to the Congress to Curb Monopolies and the Concentration of Economic Power," April 29, 1938, in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman, vol. 7, (New York, MacMillan: 1941), pp. 305-315.
- "Anti-Monopoly". May 9, 1938. Time magazine.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Appendix A: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Recommendations Relative to the Strengthening and Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws", The American Economic Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, Part 2, Supplement, Papers Relating to the Temporary National Economic Committee (Jun., 1942), pp. 119-128.
