Financial Reform for the Retail Investor?

We want to send the message to them and to the general public that we want the best, finest Securities and Exchange Commission that we can have and that we don't want to waste their time. And when you look at the immediate last 10 years, what you find out is that in so many instances, they didn't get sufficient money to buy sophisticated computer equipment, they didn't get the capacity to hire people. And I don't want to cast dispersions on anyone because there are a lot of very competent people at the SEC, but when you're running up against guys that are the highest-paid, highest-priced, and best-educated lawyers, analysts, etc., on Wall Street and you don't necessarily have on your team that same-caliber person, you go into your negotiations or you go into your situation at a decided disadvantage. We've got to make sure that we're aware of the fact that we're dealing here with multi-trillions of dollars of marketplace and we're arguing over hundreds of millions of dollars as to how we can be the best talent in our field.

What does all of this say about the government's ability to effectively police Wall Street?

I see this fight as the final war, if you will, or disagreement, between government and big multinational corporations. And we've got to find a way now that the government, representing the interests of the people, is going to be on an equal status with the multinational corporations that are so powerful now and so pervasive in getting their way because they can move outside of nationalistic boundaries to accomplish things and they can play one nation off against another—"If you won't do it New York for us, we'll go to London." When you get that kind of psychology operating, the multinational corporations are almost in a stronger position than national governments.

How can the U.S. government catch up?

It's very difficult. I think this is our last opportunity. If we don't find a way to contain these organizations that have become too large to fail—and that's why I've been working on that issue—what will happen is they will rule the regulators, they will rule the nations that they participate in, because effectively they will be bigger than we are.

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