As a long time C-SPAN junkie who takes advantage of all C-SPAN has to offer I'm quite familiar with Cox. Watching his performances at hearings and his speeches on the floor over the years I was convinced that when Bush appointed him as head of the SEC there was dancing in the streets at Wall Street.

Was it not always obvious that this result could be reasonably extrapolated from the appointment of Representative Cox to head the Securities and Exchange Commission? This was a move that have not only Wall Street executives, but the likes like of the US Chamber of Commerce and such reactionary characters like Grover Norquist dancing in the streets.

'Real' deregulation— laissez faire capitalism, really—was coming to the markets, which would (of course) 'self regulate' to prevent the emergence of abuses.

Well, we've all seen how that worked out. Rather like the deregulation of the electrical utilities industry, another cause championed by the same cast of characters.

And now, Chairmen Cox muses thoughtfully on the failure, wondering how such an outcome might possibly have occurred, deflecting any personal responsibility and—by inference—blaming his 'apparently ineffective' staff for failing to have foreseen this calamity. It's always been about accountability and enforcement, and under the 'leadership' of Chairman Cox, every possible barrier has been tossed in the way of both.

The Madoff Miracle, disappearing $50b before the very eyes of Cox's SEC and investors, is just the most egregious example of the fraud perpetrated on the world by the moguls of Wall Street with the help of the Republiclowns.

In fact the entire bubble and collapse cycle we are now dealing with is part of the same basic confidence scheme that sharks have been pulling on the public since the invention of money: Using their advantaged access to capital and official sanction, the sharks create the illusion of respectable instruments with better than average return. Investors flock to the higher returns, sharks make their money on transaction fees and frenzy-inflated value, and then when things start going south, when the instrument's unexpectedly mundane performance is revealed to all, the sharks have already bailed, floating away on rafts of cash, leaving the common investors to scramble for remaining pennies on their dollar.

The whole point of regulation is to diminish the sharks' unfair advantages, to keep the investment landscape flat and predictable and risk-managed. It's so boring. When the Republiclowns say that regulation stifles competition and innovation, they're right, but notice what kind of competition and innovation comes into play when regulations are relaxed: ARM's and CDO's and thousands of other tricks to lure investors into participating in a rigged game that always favors the sharks.

The only difference between Madoff and the rest of the sharks is that Madoff admitted the fraud when it started to unravel while the rest of the sharks are still collecting. They tapped out the investor monies and now they're collecting TARP dough from taxpayers. Now that's a hell of a scheme!

This is one coglione (Cheyney, Rumsfeld and Bush are among others) I'd like to see in an orange jumpsuit.

Isn't this the guy John McCain said he would fire if elected??? Then he was lambasted for picking on the wrong man (and claiming authority he wouldn't have)...

Did Johny actually have one good idea while campaigning?

RIP buy-and-hold investors.

Given our society's blind eye to personal accountability and encouragement of inflated self-worth, it's not surprising that Christopher Cox gives himself strong marks for how he has run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yet, the reality is our stock markets have been allowed to run amok over the past couple years and now more resemble a gambling casino than the cornerstone of mature capitalism that focuses on valuing companies based on their business fundamentals. By catering to the myopic greed of Wall Street, the SEC has allowed market volatility to explode as hedge fund blackbox trading schemes and a growing number of derivative instruments now dominate the trading floors.

According to the SEC website, its mission is to "protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation." Yet what has become quite evident, especially during this severe financial implosion, is that the SEC has been asleep at the wheel allowing well-financed players to manipulate the markets through hugely complex computerized trading schemes. Furthermore, the lack of real transparency or meaningful enforcement of SEC rules to prevent schemes such as illegal short selling has damaged even healthy companies and their investors.

What is clear is that Cox has taken his marching orders from a Republican administration with an extreme aversion to responsible oversight and regulatory enforcement. Now our markets are in near-chaos with extreme volatility, only rewarding short-term traders at the expense of responsible investors and shareholders. Yes, the titans of Wall Street have been humbled but the investors on Main Street are exiting this rigged game in droves with their nest eggs and retirement savings in shambles. Job well done, indeed, Mr. Cox.

Cox is just the tip of this financial iceberg. There is no credibile reason as to why Americans have had the burden of bailouts placed on their backs when there are trillions of dollars that are readily available to government.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/512.html

Where all the money goes

Two sets of books
The government take over
of the US economy
This video was originally produced on January 8, 2000 by Walter Burien.
The government, at all levels, is running a very simple financial con game.
If something produces revenue - like bridges, highways, ports, or successful investments etc - that revenue goes into off budget slush funds.
If it costs money, it's charged to the public via taxes.
This is being done at all levels of government - including state, county, city, and school districts.
The total "off budget" funds held by the various governments amount to trillions of dollars.
The real accounting is contained in what's called Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) which are not only not made available to the public, their very existence is never mentioned by the news media.
Why?
Trillions of dollars pays for a lot of corruption.
Every time an elected official stands before you and tells you the government is out of money and they have to raise taxes, he or she is lying through their teeth.
www.brasschecktv.com/page/512.html