

The SEC - astrec
http://blogmaverick.com/2008/11/30/the-sec-2/

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jhancock
It wouldn't surprise me if the SEC was a bastion of mediocrity and
noncompliance. Those that would like a stronger SEC are quick to point out how
severally underfunded and small it is for its supposed role.

It is an age old politic trick to speak loudly and "underfund".

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DocSavage
It's sad that the SEC is underfunded given all the fees it collects from
issuers of securities and market participants. I'm not sure about the current
year, but in the past, the fees collected by the SEC were greater than its
budget by over a hundred million.

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tlrobinson
While it doesn't make it false or any less news-worthy, the timing makes this
feel like a rather blatant attempt to divert attention away from his own
troubles with the SEC.

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robg
I disagree. If anything he's playing this the same way he played against the
NBA and their officiating - by turning up the heat on himself and the matter
at hand. Either he's crazy or courageous. By the way, he was right against the
NBA. The officiating was corrupt for a while.

They absolutely did release the report when they did to limit the PR damage,
especially given the meltdown in the market.

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Prrometheus
Is it news that a government agency is poorly run and corrupt? Look, one-third
of Medicare equipment expenses are fraudulent. The executive branch gives out
no-bid contracts to firms that used to employ its top members. The Pentagon
has lost track of hundreds of billions of dollars, and NASA its billions.

In general, our response to a corrupt bureaucracy is to make it bigger in
hopes that it will still get the job done despite the waste and graft.

It's nice that they are conducting these kinds of internal reviews. However,
the FBI did one such review and determined that it had improperly used its
PATRIOT Act powers 1,000 times for every time it used it properly. I don't
think much changed after the report.

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helveticaman
I'm surprised the FBI did this investigation in the first place.

But I think it may not be news, but it is important to call it out.

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DTrejo
very important - accountability is the lifeblood of functioning society

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nazgulnarsil
this is the single most important thing for humanity to get right if we're
going to make it. power and responsibility MUST be commensurate. the
alternatives are quite literally insane.

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projectileboy
Gosh, someone under investigation by the SEC has nasty things to say about the
SEC. Truly amazing. Speaking of ethics, where on the ethics scale would Mr.
Cuban rate commenting publicly on the trustworthiness of the SEC in the middle
of an ongoing investigation?

