SEC Chairman Christopher Cox Strikes Back At McCain

The following is a statement released by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in response to Sen. John McCain saying earlier today on the campaign trail that if he were president he'd fire Cox over the crisis on Wall Street:

Washington, D.C., Sept. 18, 2008 -- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox today made the following statement:

"While I have great respect for Senator McCain, we have sometimes disagreed, and this is one such occasion. The SEC has made plain that we have zero tolerance for naked short selling. In this market crisis, the men and women of the SEC have responded valiantly as they always do--with the utmost dedication and professionalism. Addressing the extraordinary challenges facing our markets, the independent and bipartisan SEC has taken the following decisive actions:

* We adopted a package of measures to strengthen investor protections against naked short selling, including rules requiring a hard T+3 close-out, eliminating the options market maker exception of Regulation SHO and expressly targeting fraud in short selling transactions.
* We issued an emergency order to enhance protections against naked short selling in the securities of primary dealers, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
* We announced emergency plans for a rule to ensure public disclosure of short selling positions of hedge funds and other institutional money managers.
* We have undertaken sweeping enforcement measures against market manipulation.
* We provided guidance to banks about how to account for credit support of money market funds.
* We've written rules to strengthen the regulation of credit rating agencies, and performed examinations that have led to new rules to reduce rating agency conflicts-of-interest.
* We brought a landmark enforcement action against a trader who spread false rumors designed to drive down the price of stock.
* We have initiated exams of the effectiveness of broker-dealers' controls to prevent the spread of false information intended to manipulate securities prices.
* Our Enforcement Division announced what will be the largest settlements in the history of the SEC for investors in auction rate securities who bought auction rate securities from Merrill Lynch, Wachovia, UBS and Citigroup.
* We entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Reserve, to make sure key federal financial regulators share information and coordinate regulatory activities in important areas of common interest.

"There is much more work to be done, and the current crisis is presenting new challenges on an hourly basis. What America and the world needs now is steadiness and reduction of uncertainty. History will judge the quality of our response to this economic crisis, but now is not the time for those of us in the trenches to be distracted by the ebb and flow of the current election campaign. And it is precisely the wrong moment for a change in leadership that inevitably would disrupt the work of the SEC at just the wrong time. I have long made clear my intention to leave the SEC after the end of this Administration. The next President will have an opportunity to look at the major structural questions so important to the regulation and oversight of our financial markets.

"I very much appreciate the strong and immediate support of the President. As someone who has been in public life for over 20 years, I know as well as anyone that occasionally this sort of thing can come with the territory. The best response to political jabs like this is simply to put your head down and not lose a step doing the best job you can possibly do on behalf of those you serve. For my part, I plan to do just that. I leave the political campaigns to pursue their own course."

Comments

[BethStuart]

This seems to be McCain's answer to everything. Punish the bad guys and then it's business as usual.

The SEC chairman is the one showing maturity.

[TroubleNYC]

You can't seriously expect McCain to understand all this economic mumbo jumbo do you Mr. Cox? Be careful, he'll ship you down south of the border to uh ... Spain.

[NicoleAnon]

Who exactly is her talking about here?

"We brought a landmark enforcement action against a trader who spread false rumors designed to drive down the price of stock"

Because the rumours I've heard is that Conman Sachs was spreading false rumors about both BS and LB but nobody can prove it. The CEO of LB even called them about it.

But GS won't have to worry about those pesky little problems anymore because soon they will be the only investment bank left in the country. It's a good thing they have "The Hammer" Paulson running our country for us right now! He is always looking out for his team!

[dadw5boys]

McCain explain your helping Senator Phil Graham hide the Banking Deregulation Bill in the Approations Bill and sneaking it past the Senate who had voted it down 3 time when it stood alone.


Even Republicans voted against it 3 time when it was presented as a stand a lone bill!!!!!!!!!!!

[kasinca]

Please provide a link with bill information.

[Emmy2]

It's "Gramm", not "Graham". I hate it when people misspell his name 'cause then the search engines don't locate all the negative comments about our guy Phil, who, until he made his typical "nation of whiners" remark, was JohnBoy's top economic advisor. Clearly John McCain still doesn't know much about economics if he wants to lay the current meltdown at the feet of the SEC. Phil himself, of course, has made his living for most of his adult life by slurping at the public trough. See here for details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm#Banking_Deregulation_and_the_2008_Mortgage_Crisis

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Graham is a putz. For deregulating the financial sector, UBS Warburg gave him a top job. Now he's a McCain advisor, whether publically so or not.