Denying SEC Funds Helps No One But Wall Street: James B. Stewart

The New York Times:

The economy is still suffering from the worst financial crisis since the Depression, and widespread anger persists that financial institutions that caused it received bailouts of billions of taxpayer dollars and haven’t been held accountable for any wrongdoing. Yet the House Appropriations Committee has responded by starving the agency responsible for bringing financial wrongdoers to justice — while putting over $200 million that could otherwise have been spent on investigations and enforcement actions back into the pockets of Wall Street.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[chaupper]

03:54 PM on 07/18/2011

What happens to all of these record fines and settlement proceeds collected by the SEC? Maybe they are too low. This organization should only be funded by $'s they collect through policing.

[ColoMtnWoman1]

01:49 PM on 07/18/2011

Duh... And your point is.............? It's a sop to the GOP's corporate buddies... Nothing more.

[StopMakingSense2]

01:39 PM on 07/18/2011

Wrong! Helps the republicans a great deal too. Wall Street like other industries pays republicans a great deal to do nothing or make the unethical legal. It's good and dirty business!

[nothingchanges]

09:10 PM on 07/17/2011

40% of all the money contributed to Congressional candidates in the last election cycle came from the financial sector.

Of course that has absolutely no influence on the decisions made by our elected representatives...............

After all they are far to honest and far too ethical to let millions of dollars influence any of the decisions they make regarding regulating those that give them so much money.

I thought you had to be an adult to vote, or to serve in any elected capacity.

Most adults no longer believe in fairy tales...............why do we accept this one?

[DigESource]

11:33 PM on 07/17/2011

We accept it because we have not been able to discern what our representative have really stood for all this time, because our TV media has been so biased and prejudiced for a long time, and the issues could not be candidly dealt with.

Now we have the Internet, and it's a whole new ball game. Corruption is coming to an end, and there is nothing the power brokers of the world can do to prevent it from ending, short of dismantling the Internet and other mass communication devices.

Any attempt to interrupt or stop these two things would result in an immediate global mass revolt that would end all Government as we know it, and THEY KNOW IT! Hence the insane power grab of the Republican party.

[dukeitout]

07:57 PM on 07/17/2011

The SEC has done a terrible job over the last 15 years. They should been denied funds to officially render them non-performing. Their effectiveness will be the same.

[holyghostie]

06:43 PM on 07/17/2011

The SEC did not help themselves at all by missing the Madoff case, the derivatives, several smaller ponzi schemes....and insider trading cases.

[StJames]

04:53 PM on 07/17/2011

They have been underfunding the SEC for decades...that's why it can't keep talent...they are underpaid and easily lured onto Wall St.

[commonsensepost]

08:54 PM on 07/17/2011

You are right, but they would never pay talent what it is worth.

Let me give you an example. When AIG went down, there were only a few hundred people in the world who understood their trades. A $1 hundred billion had to be unwound and the people who put them in place were fired or left.

The type of people you need for that cost $ million per year. That is what they make elsewhere. But would the government spend that? No, there was a huge outcry at paying large bonuses at AIG (to the new people).

These people, who were not there when the problems were incurred, agreed to work for AIG for pennies on the dollar. And they were begrudged that - after the fact.

Well, all the smart people left. The jokers there unwound those trades and left $ billions (!!!!) on the table because they did not care or understand.

Stupid people calling for blood cut themselves in the process! Stupid people never learn!

[drp103]

03:33 PM on 07/17/2011

read Matt Taibbi

[StrictConstitutionalist1]

03:23 PM on 07/17/2011

I have little to no confidence in the SEC after they failed to see the biggest fraud in American history staring them directly in the face. I'm sure Madoff's only one of many. The SEC is completely incompetent and they've proved that time and time again.

[Lex Anton]

02:23 PM on 07/17/2011

The SEC only does one thing--watch online porn.

[ggs83]

02:19 PM on 07/17/2011

Aiding and abetting Wall Street is exactly the purpose of the GOP and one more thing:
Remember everything the GOP does is about making sure Obama gets only one term.
I guess if the African American guy serves only one term,the GOP can say that it was a fluke and that whites are still in charge but if he serves two terms, it can not be characterized as a fluke

[Karma2U]

01:26 PM on 07/17/2011

Helping wall street is the GOPs plan.

[nofriendofrepublicans]

01:04 PM on 07/17/2011

Your government. Owned and operated by wall street.

[uneeda]

12:21 PM on 07/17/2011

the crooks win again

[nypapajoe]

12:08 PM on 07/17/2011

These regulatory agencies need to be overhauled and given a new mandate that is not watered down by the Republicans, who are the rabid defenders of the very people that these agencies are trying to investigate! just look at what they are putting Prof. Elizabeth Warren through because she wants to regulate the banks and Wall St! This is outrageous and rather asinine because it screams corruption!