Trekking Toward über Regulation: Prospects For Meaningful Change At Sec Enforcement?

Authors

  • Douglas M. Branson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2009.146

Abstract

“Once the guardian of the nation’s capital markets, known as an efficient regulator with a highly respected enforcement program, the [SEC] is now the subject of much criticism and is mired in scandal.” Ralph Nader, a critic of government regulation in all its forms, once rated the SEC as the best agency in Washington, head and shoulders above any competitor. Today, those in the securities industry seem to exhibit little fear of the agency and enforcement actions by it. Major scandals (Bernard Madoff, R. Allen Stanford, WestView Capital) go undetected (at least by the SEC) for years or decades, finally unraveling with billions of dollars in investor losses, leaving the SEC only to sweep up and turn out the lights.3 It seems each year, one or more major securities-related scandals has unfolded, undeterred in its formative stages by the prospect of SEC action; at full flower, these scandals may be policed and detected by state attorneys general, state securities commissions, or private plaintiffs, but almost never by the SEC.

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Published

2009-04-26

How to Cite

Branson, Douglas M. 2009. “Trekking Toward über Regulation: Prospects For Meaningful Change At Sec Enforcement?”. University of Pittsburgh Law Review 71 (3). https://doi.org/10.5195/lawreview.2009.146.

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Section

Articles