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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gib Bogle who wrote (93644)	4/17/2008 6:45:36 PM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 110194

Fewer Penalties The reason Cox was writing to the senator in the first place is that Dodd, along with Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, had asked the Government Accountability Office to examine the SEC's penalties in enforcement cases. Cox noted that the request followed news reports showing that disgorgement and penalties were $1.6 billion in fiscal 2007, down from more than $3 billion in each of the three previous years. With a slide like that, at a time of diminishing investor confidence, it's no wonder the SEC might reach to boost its numbers. If only it used the McGuire approach more often, maybe the SEC could take credit for most of the private settlements in U.S. securities litigation. The SEC is supposed to be promoting transparency, though, not fuzzy math. With his letter to Dodd, Cox instead looks like a tired watchdog bragging about a bone some other dog got. The public deserves better. (Jonathan Weil is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.) bloomberg.com