THE SEC'S MISADVENTURE IN (TARP)ISTAN
WilliamBanzai7

As we prepare to parse through the
fine details of the new and improved
TARP, we can expect some
surprises. But there is one non-surprise
that won't be very surprising at all.
The mother of all Federal interventions
in the global financial markets will
hardly make mention, if any at all, of the
once feared United States Securities and Exchange
Commission.

You will recall that during the last
mega Wall Street bust, the Dot.Com Bubble,
the SEC was humbled by the
aggressive enforcement tactics of
Elliot Spitzer. This time around, under
the feeble leadership of Chairman Cox,
the SEC seems misguidedly obsessed
with smoking out the evil doing
short sellers. You know, the same guys
who made the call on the opacity of the
Lehman and AIG financial statements. The ones
who guessed that something was cooking
between Goldman and AIG.
My theory is that the SEC,
shamed by the shorts, wants payback.

Last week, the FBI
announced that it is investigating who else--
AIG and Lehman, among many others.
At the end of the week the SEC made its own announcement,
it is terminating its voluntary
supervision program for Wall
Street investment Banks. Chairman
Cox admitted that the program
was flawed from the start. Duhhhh?

There are no more investment
banks to voluntarily submit to
the SEC's supervision. So the
whole silly operation is academic.
But, the silly idea of a voluntary program with an
opt out, that's right an opt out, reminds
me of Mark Twain's definition of
a banker: "A banker is a fellow
who lends you his umbrella when the
sun is shining, but wants it
back the minute it begins to
rain."

Chairmen Cox's primary mission when he
was appointed by W, was to neuter
the the agency. Sage McCain, the
then Chairman of the Senate Commerce
Committee, in his infinite regulatory ferver,
decided not to hold hearings on the
appointment. And the result: Mission
Accomplished!

While the SEC continues
its witch hunt for the wicked short selling
evil doers, the real culprits, the
Wall Street CEOs who lead the charge
into leveraged subprime bliss and
later lied publicly about their exposure
to the toxic byproducts,
are hiding out somewhere in
the Northeast frontier of Tarpistan.
And the once revered SEC, in all likelihood,
will not be the ones smoking them out.

R.I.P. (Regulatory Ineptitude Prevails) S.E.C.

P.S.: The new and improved TARP Bill has been released
and the SEC seems to be mentioned twice.
They get to sit on an the board charged to
oversee (not execute) the Bailout and
(this is ludicrous) they have the authority to
suspend marked to market accounting.