Arthur Levitt: How the SEC Fell Short

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Google Bigger than enron, then go to the PBS Frontline site to read the traqnscript. Unfortunatly the video version is no longer available online. I saw this program years ago and it started me planning to sell out and get out...which I did 3 years ago just befor the bubble burst.
you'll see the same players who hamstrung Levitt during Enron are up to their necks in this mess....Dodd, Lieberman, etc.
Until we get corporate $$ out of politics, these guys will continue to do their donar's biding, & to heck with the average citizen.
It's a good time to be living in Mexico!!

G.B. Adams 2:29PM March 21, 2009

It is not the SEC but the US government fell short! The government should have the foresight to have the proper regulations to prevent problems from happening.
According to the Yahoo interview video on Michael Greenberger last week, there were intention in year 2000 for the CFTC to regulate credit default swaps and oil futures trading. But then Alan Greespan, then SEC chairman and the Republican Congressmen were unwilling and actually passed regulation in 2000 the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act, which barred the CFTC from regulating credit-default swaps.
Why the government had such an intention to protect these people in their non-transparent activities to pass such a regulation on the CFTC while the SEC can't issue rules, including rules that would require public disclosure about the credit default swap ? Would Alan Greenspan want to explain why?
Any one with common sense want to guess why?
For with no regulation on a financial activity the result would be any one can do whatever he want.It offers plenty of opportunities for credit-default swaps to be abused in insider-trading or market-manipulation schemes are an issue as well. Since credit-default swaps may be used by speculators as well as those seeking protection against a credit default, they could be a powerful tool for manipulators
Oil futures trading led to the Enron failure, the manipulation of the oil price this year to $147 US a barrel (yes, in my opinion, definitely a manipulation to get the oil prices up double the price it is today) caused pressures on the global economy. It was reported the traders in Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase and Barclays sold $35 billion of oil futures from July to Serptember this year, and when there is regulation on oil trading the price of oil falls back to the present level.
Where is regulation on real estate property inspection and probper mortgage lending practices? Where is the regulation governing what are the conditions to fulfill before lending 100% of the real estate value and income requirements? Where is the regulation on proper evaluation of the value of mortgage backed securities and the rules governing its pricing ?
If there are proper regulations those breaking the rules could be punished , this could make anyone who want to make a fast buck irresponsibly to think twice before committing a greedy wrong.
Where are the rules governing the proper renumeration of executives which should be in line with the performance of the company, a basic salary and the bonus tied to the performance so that if the bank or the company fails to be profitable the executive would get very little in bonus so that they can take more care in the management of the company.

Candace Tong 1:23AM October 18, 2008

The current SEC has clearly demonstrated that it is incompetent. Why have these guys not been relieved of their positions? Why is the incompetence of the SEC tolerated? Why aren't Obama and McCain calling for a totally housecleaning of the SEC? Why isn't congress up in arms over the mishandling of the current situation by the SEC? All this makes me wonder if anyone in our national government cares about America more than they care about dominating the opposing political party. It's time for all Americans who are concerned about our country to stand up and demand the resignation and/or firing of those in government who allowed the current situation with our lenders to get as bad at it is and did absolutely nothing to stop it. I'd suggest that we replace the senior staff of the SEC, the Federal Reserve and, of course, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson immediately.

David of OH 11:06PM October 16, 2008