The SEC After The Financial Meltdown: Social Control Over Finance?

Authors

  • Robert B. Thompson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2009.147

Abstract

2008 was not a good year for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In December, the revelation of Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme focused attention on the agency’s failure to detect this long-running fleecing of investors. In September, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox ended the Consolidated Supervised Entities Program after three of the investment banking firms in the program disappeared and the remaining two converted to bank holding company status. The change seemed to expose the SEC as a weak prudential regulator as compared to the Federal Reserve. During the year, as various proposals for financial reforms swirled, it often seemed like the SEC was headed for the dustbin. The focus was on systemic risk and the consolidation of regulation which focused attention away from the SEC and towards the Federal Reserve as the regulator of choice. It looked like a game of musical chairs in which the SEC was slow to find its place.

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Published

2009-04-26

How to Cite

Thompson, Robert B. 2009. “The SEC After The Financial Meltdown: Social Control Over Finance?”. University of Pittsburgh Law Review 71 (3). https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2009.147.

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Section

Articles