Streetwise Professor Reviews the History of Commodity Market Corners

In a Streetwise Professor blog post titled "Four Corners Offense: The Social History of Commodity Corners," University of Houston finance professor Craig Pirrong explored the history of commodity market corners since the early 1900's.

Professor Pirrong suggested that the more things change, the more they stay the same: "Issues of the relationship between financial markets and the real economy, the political economy of financial markets and the influence of financial titans on political and judicial institutions, are still with us."

Professor Pirrong's post includes a link to a 1909 silent film, "A Corner in Wheat," made by D.W. Griffith, better known today as the director of "The Birth of a Nation." The Professor analogizes the look at the social impact of finance in "A Corner in Wheat" with those of modern films, such as "Too Big to Fail," "Margin Call," and "The Big Short."