Conclusion

By the close of the 1920s, business elites led by Wall Street had secured government enforcement of their cartels across banking, industry, transportation, and health—always advocated in the name of the public interest, always intended to serve private ones. The party that lost was the broader public belonging to no interest group; the growth of 1849 to 1929 came from free-market forces, which the corporatist network inhibited, delayed, and distorted.