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Tell President Obama: Appoint an S.E.C. chair who will hold Wall Street accountable

Burgess COMMENTARY
It is immensely important that the SEC Chair appointed by Presdient Obama is committed to oversight of the financial services industry that is meaningful. The idea that the financial services industry adds value to society merely by shuffling paper and ownership of wealth is ludicrous, but at the core of the monetary economy and its markets. There is a fundamental lack of understanding of what wealth really is, and how wealth comes about. All the financial sector does is to move wealth that others have created. I support this petition by CredoAction and wrote the following ins support, as well as doing Facebook and Twitter connects.

I am sad and appalled that over the past 40 years or so, Wall Street and capital market apologists (Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, et al) have made wealth by gutting the core Main Street economy of the United States, often by practices that have been legal because the law was gamed. It has been a disgusting failure of intellect and honesty.

Modern markets are huge distorters of the economy, and as long as it is money profit that is the principal driver of decision making for resource allocation, the global economic system is going to lurch forward bubble to bust destroying as much wealth as gets created ... as well as dstroying people and planet along the way.
Peter Burgess

'President Obama: Appoint a new S.E.C. chair who is both willing and able to enforce the law and hold Wall Street accountable. This cannot be an insider from the world of financial services or a former politician who has received donations from Wall Street.

Here are four clear choices for appointing a real top cop for Wall Street: former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky; former Senator Ted Kaufman; the leader of the pro-reform group Better Markets, Dennis Kelleher; and the former head of the F.D.I.C., Sheila Bair.'

Dear Peter,

Yesterday's announcement that S.E.C. Chair Mary Schapiro is resigning presents President Obama with a very telling choice and a very important opportunity.

The S.E.C. is one of the top regulators of Wall Street, so the president can and should ensure it's led by a champion for accountability on Wall Street.

But we shouldn't at all be confident the president won't appoint someone more interested in placating Wall Street firms than taking them to task.

For example, the New York Times reported that Sallie Krawcheck, the former head of global wealth management at Merrill Lynch and a former top executive at Citigroup, is being considered for the position.1

Tell President Obama: Appoint a real champion for Wall Street accountability to the S.E.C. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

President Obama has already named Elisse Walter, a current S.E.C. commissioner originally appointed by George W. Bush, as the new chair of the S.E.C. But Walter, who can serve through 2013 without Senate approval, will in all likelihood be a temporary replacement who serves only until another nominee can be confirmed by the Senate.

So we need to speak out now to push President Obama to name the right kind of person to the job.

M.I.T. economist and New York Times economic blogger Simon Johnson recommends three people to chair the S.E.C.: former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky; former Senator Ted Kaufman; and the leader of the pro-reform group Better Markets, Dennis Kelleher.2 To Johnson's list we'd add the former head of the F.D.I.C., Sheila Bair.

As Johnson pointed out in a recent blog post, the historical moment we're in requires not just someone who will diligently enforce the law, but also someone who will combat the pernicious Wall Street spin that has become part of the conventional wisdom.

Johnson says:

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were all big donors to the Obama campaign in 2008 ... but they did not make the top 10 list this year. Now would be a perfect time for the president to clean up Wall Street with a strong S.E.C. that is focused on enforcing the law and overturning dangerous parts of the conventional wisdom.3

Wall Street has countless well paid spinmeisters and well funded public relations efforts that have sought to absolve Wall Street crooks of any responsibility for the financial collapse. According to their Orwellian version of history, the people who gambled in the Wall Street casino with taxpayer money didn't do anything wrong. And according to their vision, the best thing the government can do to get the economy on track is just get out of Wall Street's way.

That would be a dangerous perspective for one of Wall Street's top cops.

Tell President Obama: Appoint a real champion for Wall Street accountability to the S.E.C. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Neil Barofsky has actually put bankers in jail as both an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District in New York and as Special Investigator General for the TARP program. A career prosecutor, he is one of the only people this decade who have prosecuted complex financial fraud.

Former Senator Ted Kaufman of Delaware is, according to Simon Johnson, 'a consistent advocate for financial-sector reform and was one of the clearest voices during the 2010 legislative process that led to Dodd-Frank.'

Dennis Kelleher is, per Johnson, 'a former senior Senate leadership aide with a great deal of political experience, including during the financial crisis and in the negotiations that led to Dodd-Frank, and now runs the pro-reform group Better Markets...No one has been a more effective advocate of implementing substantive reforms.'

Sheila Bair is widely acknowledged in government circles and the media as one of the first people to identify and accurately assess the subprime crisis. Elizabeth Warren said that Blair 'is a strong voice for Wall Street accountability and financial reform...[whose] leadership during the financial crisis made a real difference for working families...'4

Please speak out and help push Obama to appoint a chair of the S.E.C. who will be a real force for Wall Street accountability. Click the link below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6990929&p=sec_chair&id=51122-2665405-0KXo8px&t=10

Thank you for speaking out.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. 1. 'Schapiro, Head of S.E.C., Announces Departure,' New York Times, 11-26-12.
2. 2. 'Changing the Conventional Wisdom on Wall Street,' New York Times, 11-15-12.
3. 3. Ibid.
4. 4. 'Sheila Bair, Republican Former FDIC Chairperson, Endorses Elizabeth Warren for U.S. Senate,' Elizabeth Warren for Senate Press Release, 10-17-12.