S.E.C. Chairman: Oversight Failures Fueled Collapse

New York Times:

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged on Friday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street's largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.

The S.E.C.'s oversight responsibilities will largely shift to the Federal Reserve, though the commission will continue to oversee the brokerage units of investment banks.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[PT6]

11:22 PM on 09/28/2008

A FAIR SOCIETY and FAIR MARKETS are What Made America Great!

American Society a not a Completely Free Society but it is a FAIR Society with Certain Freedoms.

A Completely free Society without LAWS to GOVERN would be CRIME RIDDEN, ruining our standard of living.

If American Markets were Completely Free Markets Corruption would RUN WILD.
For most of our history AMERICA PRIDED ITSELF IN FAIR MARKETS.

But in the last 8 YEARS we have SEEN AN EXPERIMENT WITH FREE MARKETS and AMERICA IS IN CRISIS.

Therefore, like Society, our Markets need a Robust set of Rules and Regulations to reduce corruption and apply punishment to those violating those laws.

[PT6]

08:21 PM on 09/28/2008

Yes! Leveraged TRICKS like NAKED SHORTS Wipped out Fanny/Freddy/AIG/LEH!

A CULTURE OF GREED BUILDING ON GREED!

Young students right out of "state-of-the-art" Financial Engineering programs in BIG NAME UNIVERSITIES dropped into quarter million salaries.

If they were able to develop a "COMPUTER OR TRADING TRICK" that made a BROKER ten Billion in an afternoon or a week they took home $30 mill bonuses!

Brokerage FIRMS USED UNIVERSITIES as training grounds to "Take" investors of all types.

BROKERS who hired these "WHIZZES" became the GREAT TRAINING GROUND FOR GREED!

These young people still exist and are still tasked with "DEVELOPING TRICKS!" to SCAM US.

That is why we need "PROTECTION" in the form of REGULATIONS for FAIR MARKETS.

WE NEED ETHICS TRAINING FOR EVERY YOUNG PERSON COMING OUT OF A UNIVERSITY!

[PT6]

10:59 PM on 09/27/2008

WHY DOESN'T THE SEC PUT BACK THE "UPTICK RULE?"

AS DOING AWAY WITH THAT BROUGHT ON THE CRASHES THIS SUMMER ALL THE WAY TO NOW????

DO IT MONDAY - YOU INCOMPETENT "COOKS."

[SouthPrairie]

09:39 PM on 09/27/2008

If you are as fed up as I am, please write or email your senators and representitives--PLEASE. If you are too angry to compose, please use my message. I'd be happy to serve the American tax payer in this way:

I am appalled by the corruption that the Bush Administration has enabled and as an American citizen I would like to express my deep concern with the Democratic and Republican Party's weak kneed responses to their anti-Constitutional behavior. The last 7+ years have been torturous for those of us who are educated, family oriented, and patriotic in our thinking.

WHEN IS THE HOUSE GOING TO STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR WHAT AMERICA STANDS FOR?

This bail out had better not be a blank check to Wall Street. The house allowed bankruptcy laws pass that would have protected the consumer to some extent, and now you expect that same consumer to save the banks who practiced unsound, predatory lending practices? You have been elected to serve the tax payers of our state and here is where the tire meets the pavement.

I will not vote for you again if you allow this to go through without protections for the American tax payer that was duped by these corrupt practices.

[WorkingClass]

10:08 AM on 09/29/2008

Your senators and representatives are thieves. They laugh at letters like this.

[PT6]

08:18 PM on 09/27/2008

"Fair Markets" not Free Markets is what MADE AMERICA GREAT!

[PT6]

05:56 PM on 09/27/2008

Illeg. "UNCLOTHED SHORTS" was one of the many practices allowed by SEC!

Do not PRETEND OR TRY to load all the blame on the SEC like McFlipFlop did!

But do hold the SEC accountable for their mistakes that allowed Billions to be taken from Individual Investors and also large institutions!

The "COOKS" WON!

[milman1]

05:21 PM on 09/27/2008

Why are the democrates taking on the crisis while the republican house has a take it or leave disposition? Let Bush and the House Republicans get it done.

[schatsie]

02:06 PM on 09/27/2008

Why is this man (and Bush and Cheney and Paulson) not resigning...I must be missing something here..

[FogBelter]

01:42 PM on 09/27/2008

If Credit Default Swaps aren't addressed even $10 trillion dollars of Taxpayer money won't correct the underlying economic problem. CDS is a runaway freight train of liquified natural gas barreling down the tracks toward America's Minivan, stalled on the railroad crossing of history.

[gretchenart]

12:46 PM on 09/27/2008

Oversight causes failure. So what's the response--eliminate even more oversight. In case you missed it, the SEC announced it was eliminating the oversight over investment banks established after the Depression where commercial and investment banks were supposed to be kept separate to protect consumers from having their deposits used in speculation, because the 5 major investment banks already collapsed!!! Yes, and what happened next--B of A buys Merrill Lynch. JP Morgan takes over Wamu This smells way off--like a planned takeover of our entire financial systems by the banks, many of which are at the core of the (non) Federal Reserve--you know that private concern that controls our money supply? So now evidently, there is even less regulation and these mega Frankenbanks can presumeably work without oversight. no longer preventing our deposits from being used in investment speculation.
I say tax every trade and pay back the government/taxpayer ASAP for any bailout, though would prefer NO BAILOUT whatsoever, and checks and balances implemented, rather than further eroded. They are taking advantage of the disaster they created to move closer and closer to an economic coup d'etat as if they control our money access, they control all of us!!

[FreedomCorpse]

11:26 AM on 09/27/2008

Response to SEC chairman: "Duh". He must be the smartest man in the room they say.

[Blutus]

10:32 AM on 09/27/2008

Isn't it amazing that conservatives believe everyone is "fallen" and needs Jesus
EXCEPT businessmen. They can monitor themselves.

Silly, silly people.

Put 'em in jail. All of them.

[nellie]

10:25 AM on 09/27/2008

Voluntary oversight? Great idea. Let's have the criminal justice system work the same way. Thieves and murderers will decide what rules they need to follow and when they should be punished. Yeah. That'll work.

The word "deregulation" has been so vilified that a lot of people no longer know what it means. A deregulated environment is a lawless environment. And in a lawless environment, those who are inclined to cheat, lie, steal, and engage in other dishonest activity have NO impediments. So what do we get? Cheating. Lying. Stealing.

Somehow the word "deregulation" has been marketed to mean "oppression." It doesn't mean oppression. It means lawless. If we keep that in mind, we'll have a more reasonable attitude when it comes to regulating business and finance.

[schatsie]

10:36 AM on 09/27/2008

Exactly... So the real questions about this unit is

Was it just a revolving door issue, where the people worked there 12 months and then jumped to the clients... (of course they would not have overlooked anything when they were working there)

Or was it staffed with Regency University Accountants who practiced FAITH BASED Accounting... (remember that blond at Justice and how she hired attorneys)

Or did they do the Republican Strangle, underfund it, don't hire employees and THEN make the assertion that the department needed to be shut down because they could not do the job.. (Republican Strangle - see Grover Norquist)

I would love to do the performance audit...

[OilWarsDotCom]

10:07 AM on 09/27/2008

Deeeeeeeeeee regulation - that means corporations are not controlled as to which way they will swindle America - Republicans and Libertarians love no control, no government. Sooooo let's get ready to pay $700 billion for their folly. Google "America, what went wrong"
Funny, when you screw up, you loose your house and business - when they screw up, they get bailed out by an administration and government that never met a corporation it didn't love. American Fascism. don't cha love it?

[schatsie]

10:39 AM on 09/27/2008

You really should read Mark Twains' A Yankee in King Arthurs Court, it was an indictment of the aristocracy/oligarchy/ golden age of Robber Barons...

It does not end pretty, at least the French Revolution was successfull... Although that can be questioned because of the rise of Napoleon, but he was more progressive than our Republicans are today...

[noneIn2008]

11:32 AM on 09/27/2008

They don't love small business. Regulation helps BIG business keep out competition. Regulation is a ploy of big business.

[samlu1]

01:12 AM on 09/27/2008

Ok.....it was oversight that has caused our current trillion dollar giveaway....also known as the "Sub-prime" debacle. I used to think is was exceptionally poor people, with bad credit, no money, no job, no future, dead-beat losers, risky bums, that couldn't rub 2 nickels together that caused TRILLIONS of dollars in losses??!! Finally someone has admitted that it may have actually been very rich people with great credit that could have caused TRILLIONS of dollars in losses? Who do you think it was?