by Richard Morrison
December 18, 2008
“I commend President-Elect Barack Obama for his wise choice of Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ms. Schapiro is smart and independent-minded with expertise in the financial markets and an appreciation for entrepreneurship.
“Ms. Schapiro has served honorably in financial regulatory agencies in administrations of both parties. In the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, she was part of the SEC's streamlining of rules to make it easier for small companies to raise capital by going public in the stock market.
“The massive fraud allegedly committed by Bernard Madoff illustrates the SEC’s incredible lack of focus in the past few years on the matters of most importance to investors. Madoff was a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, subject to the most basic jurisdiction of SEC regulation. Yet the SEC staff apparently ignored warnings about Madoff, while at the same time showering small public companies with massive Sarbanes-Oxley accounting mandates that produced little of benefit for investors and did nothing to prevent the current crisis.
“Ms. Schapiro has the potential to refocus the SEC so on that the agency best serve both investors and entrepreneurs in a dynamic and vibrant equity market. CEI looks forward to presenting ideas to Ms. Schapiro and other SEC commissioners on how best to achieve these priorities.”
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.
