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Who could have known that the SEC would roll over for Wall Street

Just finished watching Joe Courtney and waiting for Obama.

Just time to note this article (Impartiality of S.E.C. Is Questioned). The article relates the story of an SEC investigator who was fired for being too aggressive in an investigation he was conducting. The inspector general has concluded, per usual, that there was misconduct involved in his firing. What struck me was this:

In a statement Monday, the chairman of the Senate finance committee at the time, Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who held hearings on the matter, said: “Gary Aguirre told it like it was and lost his job. Today we’re all paying the price for an S.E.C. culture of deference to Wall Street.”

When Bush nominated Chris Cox to head the SEC there was no secret about where Cox would take the agency. The Senate voted to put him there. How surprising can it be that there is a culture of deference to Wall Street. What did they expect?

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