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by Bill Singer Subscribe to RSS Feed: Blog Home | Past Entries Forbes' Intelligent Investing: Is Schapiro Enough for the SEC? Written: December 22, 2008

By Bill Singer

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Forbes' Editor David Serchuk puts together another no-holds barred Intelligent Investing panel (nationally known regulatory lawyer Bill Singer, Stephen Roseman of Thesis Capital, and Robert Froehlich, Vice Chairman of DWS Securities).  These three Wall Street pundits tackle the controversy over the Securities and Exchange Commission's apparent failures to effectively regulate and the Obama Administration's nomination of FINRA chief Mary Schapiro to assume the SEC's Chair.

In Forbes' December 19, 2008 article: Is Schapiro Enough For The SEC?, the Intelligent Investing panel concurs on some points but frequently disagrees on others. Read the viewpoints and decide for yourself. 

Some of Bill Singer's  typically blunt assessments are noted below:

http://www.forbes.com/intelligentinvesting/2008/12/18/intelligent-investing-sec-schapiro-madoff-panelDec19_2.html

Virtually all government agencies waste much of the funds they have. They overpay for their office supplies, they hire cronies and politicos with little understanding of the industry they are overseeing, they take far too many junkets to exotic lands at taxpayer expense, and they pay too much money to clueless managers and far too little to the grunts in the field.

Worse, promotion is often gained through corruption or awarded to those who have simply stayed longer on the job rather than produced superlative work. There is room for cost-cutting at the SEC and FINRA. Our whole society is belt-tightening. They can do so too.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/18/intelligent-investing-sec-schapiro-madoff-panelDec19_3.html

I would ask Dr. Froehlich to simply consider the disgraceful situation involving Gary Aguirre, Esq., and the interference he encountered from his SEC superiors, and the ultimate firing of this whistleblower. That had nothing to do with more money. That was corruption at the SEC.

Also consider the SEC's failure to investigate Bear Stearns--as was cited by the SEC's own inspector general in an historic report. And remember that the commission then had an [administrative law judge] whitewash the [inspector general's] finding by "concluding" that the staff hadn't really done anything wrong. That blind denial, that SEC partisanship, had nothing to do with dollars and everything to do with incompetency, negligence and failure.

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