From the Washington Post of 24 Dec 2008:
Quote:
SEC Chief Defends His Restraint
Christopher Cox, the embattled chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is defending his restrained approach to the financial crisis, saying he has provided steady leadership as Wall Street's main regulator at a time when other federal regulators have responded precipitously to upheaval in the markets.
During his tenure, the SEC has watched as all the investment banks it oversaw collapsed, were swallowed up or got out of their traditional line of business. The agency, meanwhile, was on the sidelines while the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve worked to bail out the financial sector. And the SEC, by its own admission, failed to detect an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard L. Madoff that may be the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
But in his first interview since the Madoff scandal broke, Cox said he was not responsible for the agency's failure to detect the alleged fraud and that he had responded properly to the broader financial crisis given the information he had. Confronted with a barrage of criticism from lawmakers, former officials and even some of his staff, Cox said he took pride in his measured response to the market turmoil.
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Just like other George Jr SEC Chairmen, he is proud that he did nothing to avert the meltdown. Harvey Pitts even refuse to accept a doubling of his budget after Enron. Deregulation is alive and well in an industry that most be most highly regulated do to the people who work in that industry - stock brokers. Cox is proud that he did nothing. Sounds like Karl Rove propaganda is still alive and well in the George Jr adminstration. Deny that a problem exists, let Rush Limbaugh tell the wacko extremists, and people will believe it.
How many corporate executives are currently being prosecuted by the SEC for their Enron style accounting? Zero?