https://www.stripersonline.com/surf...sec-concedes-oversight-flaws-fueled-collapse/
Conservative admits failure - S.E.C. Concedes Oversight Flaws Fueled Collapse
Started by Ibn Ozn, September 27, 2008
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Ibn Ozn
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· #1
Posted September 27, 2008 ·
"The last six months have made it abundantly clear that voluntary regulation does not work,"
-SEC Chairman Chris Cox ®
The concept of voluntary or self-regulating markets is a core conservative principle-and now an admitted failure. It's good to see some truth finally.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/bu...th&oref=slogin
September 27, 2008
S.E.C. Concedes Oversight Flaws Fueled Collapse
By STEPHEN LABATON
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, a longtime proponent of deregulation, acknowledged on Friday that failures in a voluntary supervision program for Wall Street's largest investment banks had contributed to the global financial crisis, and he abruptly shut the program down.
The S.E.C.'s oversight responsibilities will largely shift to the Federal Reserve, though the commission will continue to oversee the brokerage units of investment banks.
Also Friday, the S.E.C.'s inspector general released a report strongly criticizing the agency's performance in monitoring Bear 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.
Mr. Cox and other regulators, including Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, have acknowledged general regulatory failures over the last year. Mr. Cox's statement on Friday, however, went beyond that by blaming a specific program for the financial crisis - and then ending it...