Thursday, February 7, 2013

New York Times Editorial, "Mary Jo White at the S.E.C.": Where Does She Stand Regarding the Uptick Rule?

In an editorial entitled "Mary Jo White at the S.E.C." (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/opinion/mary-jo-white-at-the-sec.html?_r=0), The New York Times supports the president's nomination of Mary Jo White as the next chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the editorial:

"[White's] résumé in the past decade has understandably alarmed advocates of financial reform, who fear that her work as a defender of Wall Street means that she is dangerously biased in favor of the banks and their deregulatory agenda. Her lack of a deep regulatory background is also a worry at a time when the agency’s top priority is to finish overdue rules to carry out the Dodd-Frank financial reform and other securities laws. Complicating matters further, her husband, John White, is also a corporate lawyer, at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, with his own long list of Wall Street clients.

We understand these concerns but do not believe they are disqualifying."

The editorial makes no mention of the Uptick Rule or White's position in respect thereto. Cancellation of the Uptick Rule in 2007 was thought to have contributed to the 2008 economic debacle and continues to shackle the US economy (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/paul-krugman-friends-of-fraud-do-you.html). The Uptick Rule urgently needs to be reinstated.

The Times editorial concludes:

"[White's] qualities of toughness, tenacity and aggressiveness are just what the S.E.C. needs in a leader. The overarching question she must be asked — and that she must answer — is how she will use those qualities to advance the S.E.C.’s mission, which is to protect individual investors by ensuring that markets are transparent, well regulated and vigorously policed."

The Times wishes to "protect individual investors"? Nothing is more urgent than reinstatement of the Uptick Rule. Without it, Wall Street is a casino with the odds dangerously stacked against individual investors and in favor of voracious hedge funds, which are busy manipulating the activity of American financial markets.

Where does White stand regarding the Uptick Rule? An answer is needed.

2 comments:

  1. Wall Street is a paradigm. It is what the U.S. is in most respects. A casino. A game stacked against the most helpless. Nothing new.

    Unlike the role social media is playing in the uptick in revolt in the arab world, it may not be as influential in the financial world. Too bad citizens can't capture images of hedge funds and their lackeys in action enforcing their orchestrated attacks on legit companies in order to make their shortest dreams come true.

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  2. If Obama is committed to one thing,it seems to be surrounding himself with fellow,like minded empty suits.

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