SEC Porn Patrol
The Daily Diatribe: The Securities and Exchange Commission, the government agency charged with being the financial industry watchdog, was tainted with scandal last week when it was discovered that, during the financial meltdown of the last few years, several of their senior managers were surfing porn sites on the internet. The media loves this story. This is a story that tickles their innards and leads to incredible hyperbole. The best I have heard so far is that the SEC could have stopped Bernie Madoff if they weren’t perusing Jenna Jameson.
If we accept the basic premise that the role of a government regulator is to shoot the survivors after the war is over, it is difficult to even feign surprise at this story. They didn’t catch Madoff because they are locked in a bureaucratic autocracy that rewards time in grade and not merit. Of even more interest to me is the timing of this story. Remember all of the hooting and hollering being fomented as a result of the timing of the Goldman-Sachs story?
It appears that going after Goldman-Sachs when they did was political, in that the government wanted to push financial regulatory reform. So, is the breaking of the porn-surfing SECers an effort to tamp down the criticism emanating from that? After all, isn’t this goose and gander type stuff? It seems to me farcical on both counts.
Look, folks; government is not competent. I can cite several examples, but I am trying to be kind. Oh, the heck with that; the post office bites. I need go no further.
The Department of Defense routinely spends $400 on a hammer. The IRS is a mess, and the military puts folks behind the wheel of two-and-a-half ton trucks when they have never driven a truck in their life (they actually did that to me). It’s a wonder I didn’t kill anybody by running them down.
Now, we have a new debt commission convening this week. Do we need another bi-partisan commission to tell us that we are spending ourselves into oblivion? I find it laughable that these kinds of things are taken seriously anymore. What they conclude isn’t important. What will actually happen as a result of their meeting is of interest but only if it involves a tax cut. It won’t. So, your kids and grandkids will inherit a boatload of red ink. Welcome to government of the people, by the people and for the people, as long as it includes all of the people instead of a simple majority.
Now that we know that the SEC is staffed by a few perverts, what happens as a result? That really is the question. Mary Schapiro is the head of the SEC. She has been at the forefront of the financial regulatory debate, insisting that more and more oversight (regulation) is needed and the financial meltdown of the last few years proves it.
That being the case, does the outing of the porn surfers illustrate the need for a regulatory agency overseeing the SEC? I would support that. We could call them the Porn Patrol, give them uniforms (think TSA), and subject them to random hard drive searches.
Of course, to be truly effective, it would need to be implemented next year after all of the horses have left the barn. It wouldn’t be right to end this story without hearing from Barney Frank. After all, we ask him about every other societal ill. I would be most interested in that answer.
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