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Trust In The Shadows: Law, Behavior And Financial Re-Regulation, Raymond H. Brescia

Raymond H Brescia

In the deep throes of the Great Depression, in an effort to restore faith in America’s economy, the Roosevelt Administration promoted the development of voluntary codes of conduct to govern employment and manufacturing practices across hundreds of industries. Compliance with these codes permitted a company to display a Blue Eagle, which was supposed to signify support for New Deal efforts, and that the company was trustworthy. In this way, the Blue Eagle served as a heuristic—a cognitive shortcut— that helped consumers identify those companies engaged in fair practices so that those consumers could show their support for the recovery effort …