My faith in the American system is restored.
After a close call, wherein a super powerful member of the Wall Street royalty was ALMOST required to submit to the rule of law by a seasoned, smart investigative attorney, the ship righted itself, the investigator was fired, and the SEC came to the unsurprising conclusion that all was well on Wall Street.
Thankfully, the SEC stopped Congress from being able to review the facts of the case, by stonewalling the Senate Judiciary Committee when they asked to see key documents. Who needs rank amateurs like former prosecutors a la Specter mucking things up, when all that is required is the ability to fire anyone trying to go after Wall Street, and a rubber stamp?
If I seem cynical, remember that this is the same SEC that has assured us that Reg SHO has resulted in a marked decrease in FTDs, even as we now know from the FOIA data that was a bald-faced lie.
If a regulator is willing to lie about how well its rules are working, what, precisely, stops them from lying about everything else? I mean, right up until the minute the FOIA requests hit, we were reading articles and hearing SEC officials proclaiming Reg SHO was working, blah blah blah.
And yet that provably isn't so. Even if you BK large FTD companies like Delta, and delist a bunch of hugely contributory companies from the pennies that have billions of FTDs, the sheer number still has increased.
So the SEC can be shown to be a regulator who lies, with abandon, to its guardians in Congress, as well as to the public it serves.
So why should it come as a surprise that a seemingly pre-ordained outcome, namely that a guy and a company with "too much juice," after having the head investigator disposed of, is absolved of all wrongdoing?
I'm reminded of the good old days in the South, where an accused farm hand could expect a fair trial, and then a hanging. It was dependable. Everyone knew how it was going to go. Anyone standing in the way of that "justice" was eliminated. Nobody needed those damned Yankees from up North meddling in their affairs.
Apparently NY has now developed the same defenses. On the one hand, in the recent Senate hearings, Specter was told that insider trading was "insidious and pervasive" - and yet on the other hand, the SEC just can't seem to find anyone that is doing it.
One wonders if today, Milken wouldn't have been exonerated, and his "witch hunt" arguments found purchase with a compliant media? With no Giulliani to drive the NY side of the fence, and no huge Wall Street banks hell bent on regaining the market share they had lost to Drexel, one has to wonder if the lead investigators wouldn't have just been disposed of, and after a whitewash, everyone declared innocent - in advance of any niggling paperwork or other formalities.
We sure have come a long way. This is so much more civilized. Hundreds of millions of shares aren't delivered to their buyers, with the overall number increasing even as more victims drop off the exchanges, gored by the miscreants, and that is the SEC's idea of progress - War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery. A seasoned investigator is fired after receiving accolades and pay increases, and we are the safer for it. Insider trading is insidious and ubiquitous, but the SEC can't find anyone doing it.
Here's an idea. Maybe if you didn't fire the guys who could find out who's doing it, you would have a better shot at it? Just an idea, mind you.
That Congress has allowed an out-of-control SEC to continue to abuse the notion of fair application of the rule of law is disheartening. Apparently no amount of dishonesty will get any sort of backlash from Congress - you can rescind subpoenas generated to discover what is going on, fire lead investigators, get caught in outright lies, ruin company valuations with bogus investigations, whatever - all in a day's work.
That no special prosecutor has been appointed speaks to an environment where statutory rapists are in charge of committees for the protection of minors, and our highest officials are routinely caught in blatant lies, and simply stare at the cameras defiantly - sending the clear message, "What are you going to do about it?"
And that is where we are with the SEC. Yeah, we lied. Yes, we can't find our ass with two hands if you are suitably "juiced" - so, what are you going to do about it?
That is really the only question, isn't it?