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All eyes are now on the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington. Its proposed reforms set the bar lower than those the state of New York got from for Merrill Lynch. And low is where the big financial houses want to keep any talk of reform. They may get away with it, because the industry has bought protection in Congress that has practically turned the SEC from a watchdog into a lapdog. |
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Bill Moyers
on Wall Street Reform
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The new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvey Pitt, came to his job after a long and lucrative career representing every major accounting firm. He's got so many conflicts of interest he makes a Wall Street analyst look like Saint Francis of Assisi. Remember all those reforms in accounting practices we were going to get after Enron? Well, according to THE NEW YORK TIMES, the big accounting firms, with the help of some generous campaign contributions, have managed to block them.
This, too, is how the game is played these days, take that one hundred million dollar penalty on Merrill Lynch. It's less than one third of what the firm paid for office supplies and postage last year. And the IRS told us yesterday that both the company's penalty and legal fees may be tax deductible. A business expense-for deceiving the public. So as investors the ladies in Jupiter Florida not only have their purses snatched...as taxpayers they're expected to subsidize the fine paid by the thief.
Tell us what you think.
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