Word: sec
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Less Cash. In the first quarter of 1948, according to SEC, privately held liquid assets (cash and bank accounts) fell off $4 billion, the first such decline since 1942. Meanwhile there was a $2.5 billion increase in securities holdings...
...once before looked askance at the financial undercarriage of his snazzy, rear-engined automobile (TIME, July 7, 1947), was at him again. This time it took a dim view of his first annual report (deficit $5,651,208). The report, along with Tucker's stock registration statements, said SEC, "contained untrue statements of material facts and omitted to state material facts." SEC scrutinized everything from payments to officers to the very "nature of the business done and intended to be done...
Hard-pressed Preston Tucker had done his best to squirm out of a full-dress investigation. When SEC first asked for a quiet look at his records, he balked. Then the commission, still preserving a tactful silence in public, subpoenaed him to appear with his books. Tucker took his case to the newspapers and thus broke the news that SEC wanted to see what was going on in Tucker Corp. In full-page ads, with the air of a man whose patience is infinite, he said: "My associates and myself and the Tucker Corp. have been investigated time & again...
...When SEC carried the case to court, Tucker threw in the sponge. Last week he declared himself ready to open his books to the commission-but not without a final dramatic gesture. The records, said Tucker, "are as vital to the operation as machines along the production line. Tying up such records will make it impossible to continue operating." He laid off 1,100 workers, closed down the plant until the investigation was over. For once Tucker permitted himself a note of pessimism. If the plant remained closed for more than 60 days, he said, the "project . . . might collapse...
There was still no drop in demand. In the first quarter, reported SEC, the net sales of 1,070 U.S. corporations had risen 19% above the 1947 period. And there was plenty of buying power: in April, personal incomes had gone up $1.4 billion, reaching an annual rate of $209 billion. In some lines which had felt a sag in sales, strange and wonderful things were happening. A few weeks ago, for example, some home appliances were in the doldrums. But when the Iron Age set out to probe the slump last week, it was flabbergasted: demand had picked...