A godsend to Wall Street

[liberaliraqvet26]

There has not been a lot of emphasis on the nomination of Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA)to head the Securities & Exchange Commission in the MSM (as expected) but even on left leaning sites & media. Like many other Bush appointees (i.e. Bolton, Johnson at EPA) he is being picked to head an agency he loathes with the purpose of severely undermining it.

Former SEC head William Donaldson did his share of ripping off investors and unethical business when he was a founding partner of DLJ a wall street firm well known for its business in junk bonds in the 1980's. Much to the surprise of the securities industry and big business however, he proved to be a somewhat effective regulator in the post Enron, Worldcom world. Earlier this week he was forced to step down by the administration and business interests to bring in someone more in line with the administrations laissez fare stance on market regulation.

On the outside looking in it appears to be a gift to the brokerages since the administration's ill fated plan to gut social security is stalled and has faced bipartisan opposition. I guess they see it as a silver medal. They will still get to rip off unsuspecting investors but at a smaller scale. If ever there were a chance for Democrats and opponents of Republican economic policies to step up to the plate it is now. It is unlikely we can block Cox from getting confirmed in the senate when it comes to him getting his sacred "up and down" vote, but this is an opportunity to put corporate corruption and malfeasance in the headlines again. The Ken Lay trial will be coming this January and the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Arthur Anderson conviction are also available to back up these arguments.

After Sept 11th white collar crime took a back burner, it is one issue in which we know we have public support. Write your Democratic & moderate Republican Senators (Snowe, Collins,McCain, Warner) and tell them to bloddy Rep Cox up on the Senate floor. Doing so will show the titans on Wall Street that they do not have a mandate on destroying the ethics of our markets.