I’ve long thought the biggest problem at the Securities and Exchange Commission, or just about any other government regulator, is the number of staffers looking for their next job.
The SEC is the agency that’s supposed to keep businesses from cheating each other and the investing public. Bbut how can we trust it with so many people swinging through it’s revolving door from public regulator to private corporation?
A new report from the Project on Government Oversight examines this question.
“Former employees of the SEC routinely help corporations try to influence SEC rulemaking, counter the agency’s investigations of suspected wrongdoing, soften the blow of SEC enforcement actions, block shareholder proposals, and win exemptions from federal law,” writes Michael Smallberg, an investigator for the watchdog group.
Click here to read my column on MarketWatch. And click here to read Mr. Smallberg’s report, Dangerous Liaisons: Revolving Door at SEC Creates Risk of Regulatory Caputure.
