What am I doing? I'm waiting for the trade to come to me! What are you doing?
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Why porn charges at the SEC are the LEAST of their worries
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/04/23/sec-incompetence/
SEC Incompetence
Posted by Mark A. Calabria
There has been much speculation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its charges against Goldman Sachs on the eve of a Senate vote on new finance regulation in order to help Democrats win that vote. Perhaps that theory is wrong: It now looks more likely that the SEC timed its Goldman case in order to divert attention away from two SEC inspector general (IG) reports criticizing the commission.
In one of the reports, the SEC IG found that several of the top staffers at the SEC were spending their days surfing the web for porn, rather than looking for securities fraud. One senior manager spent almost 8 hours a day looking a porn, getting to the point where he even filled up his government issued hard-drive with porn. His actions were not some isolated incident. Over 30 employees were found to have regularly used SEC computers to download and view porn. Some of the senior employees had salaries as high as $222,000 a year. Sounds like nice work, if you can get it.
But the porn charges are the least of the SEC’s worries. Also released was the IG’s report on the SEC’s failure to stop the Stanford Ponzi scheme. The report shows a clear pattern of incompetence at the SEC. Given the SEC’s failure to act on the Madoff scheme, and the repeated warnings about Stanford, one has to wonder how good SEC investogators are at discovering fraud if they don’t even pursue the clear-cut cases brought to them.
The IG report does help explain the SEC’s poor track record. The SEC’s head of enforcement made it very clear that the staff was “to bring more Wall Street types of cases.” Perhaps ones like the recent Goldman case? The head of enforcement even goes so far as to ask the staff working on the Stanford case, “What are you bringing these cases for?” Clearly the SEC only seems to care about fraud if its catches a big headline. Since the SEC was first warned about Stanford, investors placed about $8 billion more into the Ponzi scheme, far more than the damages alleged in the Goldman case.
If anything should expose the current financial regulatory bill being debated in the Senate as a fraud, it should be the fact that it leaves the SEC still standing. Even worse, it reduces Congressional oversight of the SEC by removing it from the appropriations process.
I think there might be some truth to what you say. It's way WAY more than just a certain 3 stocks BTW.
Good Morning robron!
Good Morning TEAM!!!
I like that! I'm self-employed and actually like my job but I wouldn't hesitate to "quit when my job if starts costing me money".
Gotta get to a Monkinar..... gotta get to a Monkinar.......
nice work herm! It should come naturally when fiat currency is on the line!
raises hand! Sussex County here!
LOL!!!
lookie there... someone just bought some CDIV above ask!
doin' good b0b, doin' good!
were those your shares at 12:29?
haha ummm no. Don't ya just love the stereotypes of NJ? And no, I don't live off of an exit. LOL
from one Joiseyite to another.... good morning Sidney!
hey b0b how's it goin?
umm yeah well Ralph usually shows up a little later
*hiccup* *burp*
lol, sounds good to me! But first I need to buy you a drink or two for being such a great guy!
I'll forgive you this time but honestly it really did screw up my whole morning.
Good Morning Monk! I'm fix'n to go to the Atlanta or Colorado Monkinar. I hope you consider having it in Colorado Springs because my daughter lives there. She turns 19 on Oct 5th. A Monkinar would be a great birthday present for her! Don'cha think?
Good Morning ExB! I missed your ding ding ding ding ding at 9:30:00 this morn.
thanks for sharing! I added person mark for you!
Let's hope this is our guy because as a former OTC market maker I'm sure Lux knows the "rules of game" pretty well.
Thanks RNR, a good and wonderful Sunday to you and yours too!
welcome to the Den!
ROFLOL...... Berry behave
I got one today b0b
me neither
someone doesn't want EIGH to go over 10
Just watched the BRS Parachute System video, I'm impressed!
nice! just googled it... what a beauty!
good morning ctay, I'm new here but I'm starting to feel like a denster already.
yes, definitely on my top 10 list!
out of curiosity what kind of wings are you fly'n?
Good Morn'n to ya b0b and Den dwellers!
Our government at work
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/23/sec.porn/index.html?hpt=T1
SEC staffers watched porn as economy crashed.
April 23, 2010 3:52 a.m. EDT
SEC employees spent hours looking at porn sites on their work computers, according to an internal report.
(CNN) -- As the country was sinking into its worst financial crisis in more than 70 years, Security and Exchange Commission employees and contractors cruised porn sites and viewed sexually explicit pictures using government computers, according to an agency report obtained by CNN.
"During the past five years, the SEC OIG (Office of Inspector General) substantiated that 33 SEC employees and or contractors violated Commission rules and policies, as well as the government-wide Standards of Ethical Conduct, by viewing pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images using government computer resources and official time," said a summary of the investigation by the inspector general's office.
More than half of the workers made between $99,000 and $223,000. All the cases took place over the past five years.
The inspector general's report includes specific examples of misuse by employees.
A regional office staff accountant tried to access pornographic Web sites nearly 1,800 times, using her SEC laptop during a two-week period. She also had about 600 pornographic images saved on the hard drive of her laptop.
Separately, a senior attorney at SEC headquarters admitted to downloading pornography up to eight hours a day, according to the investigation.
"In fact, this attorney downloaded so much pornography to his government computer that he exhausted the available space on the computer hard drive and downloaded pornography to CDs or DVDs that he accumulated in boxes in his office," the inspector general's report said.
"It is nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation's economy to the brink of collapse," said Rep. Darrell Issa. The Republican is a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
"This stunning report should make everyone question the wisdom of moving forward with plans to give regulators like the SEC even more widespread authority," he said. "Inexplicably, rather than exercise its existing regulatory enforcement authority, SEC officials were preoccupied with other distractions."
The investigation came to light on the same day President Obama gave a speech in lower Manhattan, calling for reform in the finance industry.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate is working on a reform bill that would set up regulatory oversight of the financial industry's practices with the goal of preventing another Wall Street meltdown like the one in 2008 that launched the U.S. recession.
The bill includes an "early warning" system intended to spot signs of crisis, as well as a $50 billion liquidation fund created with money from banks and other finance industry corporations to ensure an orderly transition in closing down failing entities. It's approved by the Senate's Banking and Agricultural committees.
The House passed its version of the bill in December.
It's a mighty fine day to buy some air shares, wouldn't you say?
Bring it on..... bring it on!!!!!
Good Morning ExB!
Good Morning Den! Rise and Shine!!!