Saturday, September 27, 2008

From today's NYT:

Friday, the S.E.C.’s inspector general released a report strongly criticizing the agency’s performance in monitoringBear Stearns before it collapsed in March. Christopher Cox, the commission chairman, said he agreed that the oversight program was “fundamentally flawed from the beginning.”

“The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work,” he said in a statement. The program “was fundamentally flawed from the beginning, because investment banks could opt in or out of supervision voluntarily. The fact that investment bank holding companies could withdraw from this voluntary supervision at their discretion diminished the perceived mandate” of the program, and “weakened its effectiveness,” he added.

Voluntary regulation?  Great idea!  Kind of like voluntary toll-booths at the Lincoln Tunnel.

Yep, let's fire him.




No comments:

Post a Comment