Donaldson Takes a Dive
June 26, 2005 4:23 PM   Subscribe

Bill Donaldson, chair of the SEC, is out effective June 30, presumably to go back to the private sector. Taking his place, if approved, is Christopher Cox. Many believe Donaldson restored investor confidence since the equity market implosion. What's the upside of a Chris Cox tenure and for whom?
posted by nj_subgenius (6 comments total)
 
It sounds to me like a partisan decision.

Cox has a great relationship with Bush. I hear he also gets along great with Dick, too. That said, even though Cox can appear to be firm, he also comes off as being soft sometimes, not thinking with his brain, going back and forth, or simply following Bush's (or Dick's) lead. Some say Cox is small potatoes, and will be largely overshadowed by Dick.

The Democrats actually had quite a bit of faith in Donaldson, but that said, all the Republicans love Cox.
posted by insomnia_lj at 5:44 PM on June 26, 2005


Cox may put the brakes on an ill-conceived, hasty and overbroad program to put hedge funds (open only to millionaires) under many of the same regulations that apply to mutual funds (grandma's retirement money).
posted by MattD at 6:52 PM on June 26, 2005


Inasmuch as the SEC is chronically underbudgeted, I predict that Mr. Cox's tenure will be ineffectual if not outright flaccid.

Lately Eliot Spitzer (BTW, a hedge fund investor himself) has been doing more for Joe and Jane Average-Investor than the SEC.
posted by ilsa at 9:22 PM on June 26, 2005


This is what you are getting from this idiot

Read more

"dumb" and "ass" in a simple combination are not good enough to describe him. Do they really give away law degrees in crackerjack boxes , Mr Cox found one i think.


"It’s an unambiguous record: in 2001, he voted for $25 billion in rebates to companies such as Enron as well as to give a $6.5 billion tax break to U.S. financial corporations moving their operations overseas. In 2002, he voted to give Homeland Security contracts to U.S. companies that had moved overseas to dodge paying U.S. taxes. In 2004, he supported a plan to give federal loans to U.S. companies that move overseas and voted to allow certain companies to raid $80 billion during a two-year period from employee pension plans."
posted by stuartmm at 9:51 PM on June 26, 2005


My parents (both of them outspoken, hard-core liberals) live in Cox's district, and consider him a great Congressman, at least in terms of being a conduit between citizens and government. On several occasions he has helped them get through bureaucratic red tape (things like, for example, getting a student visa for a foreign friend). It hadn't even occurred to me before hearing about it that this is something that elected officials do.

It's made me sad over the past few years to see him get more national exposure. I think he's a great local representative but on larger issues he's just let himself sink into the mold of simple-minded ideologue. Are there any good expressions about ambition and assholes?
posted by bjrubble at 11:47 PM on June 26, 2005


MattD: I'm not worried about what happens to millionaires...bad things have happened to Grandma's money as a result of abusive hedge fund activity post-bubble. The concentration of wealth in a hedge fund (per person with access to material non-public information) is huge, and the ethical behavior of these funds needs to be transparant and provable. One compliance officer: couple to a few hundred thousand a year. Software and people to carry out the regs: another couple hundred thousand. When you look at the commissions rung up by these firms - these are just transaction costs - compared with the amounts required to institute, maintain and enforce a code of ethics - it doesn't even amount to peanuts.
I agree with ilsa; sufficient SEC funding is crucial. However, requiring hedge funds to follow published ethical guidelines, and to have enforceable policies and positive proof they are being followed, is not 'costly' in the least, except to the odd crook here and there.
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:02 AM on June 27, 2005


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