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Title

Rep. Ackerman vs. the SEC

Description

The blog post, <a href="http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2009/02/video_gary_ackerman_goes_off_o.html" source="NY Newsday" author="">Gary Ackerman goes off on the SEC</a>, refers us to a five-minute video of a portion of the investigation of how the SEC managed to avoid shutting down Bernie Madoff ten years ago. The video is linked below. <media src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FOKSkaQoF_I" caption="Rep. Ackerman on Madoff Fraud" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOKSkaQoF_I" source="YouTube" align="center" class="frame"> I've taken the liberty of providing a rush transcript of the best bits below. In all cases, "you" refers to the SEC. <bq>Your mission you said was to, 'protect investors and detect fraud quickly'. How'd that work out? What went wrong? [...] One guy with a few friends and helpers discovered this thing nearly a decade ago, led you to this pile of dung that is Bernie Madoff and stuck your nose in it and you couldn't figure it out. You couldn't find your backside with two hands if the lights were on. [...] You have single-handedly defused the American public of any sense of confidence in American markets if you're the watchdog. You have totally and thoroughly failed in your mission.</bq> America needs more of this. America needs a Congress that is this harsh with itself, with corporate leaders that show up with their hats in hand, with lobbyists and with functionaries from all of the other potentially-useful-but-in-reality-useless agencies and branches that make up our gargantuan government. But, knowing that that's not likely to happen, just enjoy this five-minute clip as Rep. Ackerman lights into a table full of functionaries from the SEC, who clearly don't understand the meaning of "taking responsibility". Linda Thomsen, the SEC enforcement director who also speaks in the video is the living definition of "functionary". She can't even just apologize for her colossal screw-up; instead, she uses that most abhorrent of constructions, "I'm sorry (you feel that way)". What sounds like an apology is in fact an expression of commiseration for the anger of another for which the person purportedly apologizing is in no way directly responsible. It makes you wish there was a trap door under her. The transcript continues: <bq>How are [Americans] supposed to have confidence that if somebody goes to you with a complaint, gives it to you on a silver platter, with all of the investigation, with all of the data, with all of the number and how he knows that, and after a period of a half-dozen or eight years, you still don't know anything. [...] This is huge. How do you miss that? And we know that there's a million Madoffs out there; you missed all of those too.</bq> Just because the SEC has been historically useless doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to have one. It just means that we've had poor regulation, not that we need no regulation. Sure, the lobbyists and Congress itself have had a lot to do with defanging the SEC, but the people working there don't have to compromise their principles as well. So, dump the current crop of career bureaucrats at the SEC---and other similarly useless agencies---and hire some people willing to work for the American people instead of for their careers.