Mary Schapiro today announced she would step down from her post as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, capping a tenure during which most white collar criminals responsible for the financial collapse of 2008 could sleep soundly.
The nation’s biggest banks could pay fines without admitting nor denying guilt, with none of their top executives ever really targeted. Click here to read more on her announcement from the Associated Press.
Ms. Schapiro is a career regulator and a go-along-to-get-along gal. It was easy to see that nothing much would come of our sorry state of finanical regulation when President Barack Obama appointed her. It was even easier when she said she was having a difficult time explaining to people why financial regulation is even necessary.
Yes, she actually said this. Click here to read what I wrote last year. Ms. Schapiro will get some kudos for guiding an agency following the greatest financial collapse of our time. But most of the problems that got us here are alive and well today, thanks to bureaucrats like Ms. Schapiro. Where, oh where, are the leaders?
As for President Obama’s new pick Elisse Walter, an SEC commissioner, all I can say is meet the new boss, the same as the old boss.
Click here to read my sarcastic column on who should replace Ms. Schapiro in The Sunday Wall Street Journal.
