The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to be about protecting the individual investor. This New York Times story shows how the S.E.C. is obstructing attempts to obtain company accounting information contained in agency files. A private research firm called SEC Insight is resorting to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get the S.E.C. to comply with the law and release its files. By blocking outsiders from accessing the files, the agency is making it harder for investors to discover accounting fraud.
Testifying on May 3 before the financial services committee of the House of Representatives, S.E.C. Chairman Chris Cox said: “When it comes to giving investors the protection they need, information is the single most powerful tool we have. It’s what separates investing from roulette.”
Yet since August 2004, the commission has failed to provide documents relating to 1,700 of SEC Insight’s requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the law, such requests are supposed to be answered in 20 days, but in most cases the S.E.C. says it is still looking for documents more than a year after SEC Insight requested them.
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I say Caveat Emptor even for the stock markets. Shut the SEC down.
What a stupid comment, Lee. Regardless of what the SEC was accused of doing in this article it still has done more good than harm. By letting the stock markets go to the wolves we would see more Enrons and the possible collapse of many families’ savings, not to mention a possible blow to the whole economy of the U.S.
darlean? Hello? Newsflash: This is 2011 – While the SEC was busy sitting on info, the bubble popped, the mortgage market collapsed, money was printed, cronies were bailed out, families’ savings (what little there are in this redlined economy) were or are currently being wiped out by inflation. The whole economy of the U.S. is busy playing Panzerkreuzer Bismarck while the Admiral is holding pep speeches from the bridge.
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