This was on NHPR this morning, although a quickly Google did not confirm it. I missed the guy's name (NHPR is bad on names, they only use them once and go with pronouns for the rest of the piece).
Anyhow they had him in the studio and he used some fairly tough language to condemn the SEC for not prosecuting the biggies on Wall Street, and going after the small fry. Which is true enough. Nobody of consequence has been prosecuted over the 2007 crash that kicked off Great Depression 2.0.
This guy totally didn't understand what te SEC is supposed to be doing. He thinks the agency's mission is to prosecute Wall Streeters. Not so. The SEC was created after the 1929 crash with a mission to prevent another crash. The 1929 crash caused 10 years of misery (the Great Depression) and was a major factor in kicking off WWII. The Great Depression traveled to Germany and had a lot to do with bringing Hitler to power in 1933. The 2007 crash was as bad as the 1929 one. The SEC failed to prevent it. That's total mission failure. We ought to disband the SEC, fire all the employees, burn all their files. And start up something new.
Prevention, means regulations forbidding risky practices such as mortgage backed securities, credit default swaps, derivatives, high speed trading, excessive leverage, and banks playing the stock market with FDIC insured money. Wall Street is supposed to be a place where companies go to raise money for expansion. It is not supposed to be a casino.
Any how, all this retiring SEC big wig can find to complain about is a lack of high profile scalps. This is a man who doesn't understand his job.
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