Abstract Almost four years have passed since the enactment of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, creating the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and transferring the administration of the Securities Act of 1933 from the Federal Trade Commission. Both Acts, viewed as a framework of regulation, implicitly assume the validity of traditional economic premises of securities distribution and trading, and the usefulness of the forms and mechanisms which had been developed to accommodate securities transactions. The legislation did not seek to fashion new instruments of investment procedure nor the alteration of basic concepts of the function of the investment banking process in the national economy. The process was to be invigorated and fortified by dissemination of information relating to the merchandise circulating in the markets. Administrative responsibility under the statutes is phrased in terms of protection of investors, and administrative authority, broadly speaking, is phrased in terms of disclosure.