We’ve discussed this extensively over the past few weeks, but its now on the front page of the NYTimes:
“Many events in Washington, on Wall Street and elsewhere around the country have led to what has been called the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. But decisions made at a brief meeting on April 28, 2004, explain why the problems could spin out of control. The agency’s failure to follow through on those decisions also explains why Washington regulators did not see what was coming.
On that bright spring afternoon, the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission met in a basement hearing room to consider an urgent plea by the big investment banks.
They wanted an exemption for their brokerage units from an old regulation that limited the amount of debt they could take on. The exemption would unshackle billions of dollars held in reserve as a cushion against losses on their investments. Those funds could then flow up to the parent company, enabling it to invest in the fast-growing but opaque world of mortgage-backed securities; credit derivatives, a form of insurance for bond holders; and other exotic instruments.
The five investment banks led the charge, including Goldman Sachs, which was headed by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Two years later, he left to become Treasury secretary.
(emphasis added)
No wonder the bailout package is so poorly crafted: The same genius, Hank Paulson, that helped us to get into this, and has utterly failed to see this coming until it was all but on top of is, is trying to get us out. He is uniquely unqualified for this task. How this guy hasn’t honorably fallen on his own sword yet is beyond me.
Here are a few money quotes from the article:
“We’ve said these are the big guys,” Mr. Goldschmid said, provoking nervous laughter, “but that means if anything goes wrong, it’s going to be an awfully big mess.”
“I’m very happy to support it,” said Commissioner Roel C. Campos, a former federal prosecutor and owner of a small radio broadcasting company from Houston, who then deadpanned: “And I keep my fingers crossed for the future.”
Now you know: Hoping and praying as a policy approach don’t really work all that well . . .
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Previously:
How SEC Regulatory Exemptions Helped Lead to Collapse (September 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/regulatory-exem.html
SEC: Brokerage Collapse Was Our Fault (September 2008)
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/sec-brokerage-c.html
Source:
Agency’s ’04 Rule Let Banks Pile Up New Debt, and Risk
STEPHEN LABATON
October 3, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/business/03sec.html
Multimedia:
The Day the SEC Changed the Game
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/09/28/business/20080928-SEC-multimedia/index.html
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