Sense on Cents

Despite a wealth of political bluster that Wall Street has been reformed, we awake this morning to see that very little has really changed on this front. Financial regulatory reform? Not today, folks.

The simple fact is when it comes to Wall Street regulation, investors, consumers, and the American public at large are being fed the same helping of dog$hit.

We need look no further than a meeting held just yesterday of industry executives and securities regulators to see exactly this. 

Let’s navigate as The Wall Street Journal writes, Market Complexity Cited in Snafus,

Wall Street firms and exchanges should better police each other to prevent and reduce the cost of technology gaffes, industry executives and researchers told securities regulators Tuesday.

Five years of excruciating economic anxiety. Trillions of dollars of taxpayer funded bailouts. Countless numbers of financial regulatory disasters and this is what we are being fed. The same dog$hit collectively delivered as financial self-regulation. Where is a real spokesman for the American public to look these Wall Street firms and exchanges in the eye and say, “I don’t think so, gentlemen.” I suggest we call Joe Saluzzi and Sal Arnuk at Themis Trading and lay the issues of destructive, incestuous activities regularly transpiring in our equity markets out in spades.

We see further evidence of self-regulatory dog$hit in reports that investigations of insider trading cases are escalating. The FT highlights this point this morning in writing,

FBI agents are also trying to work more closely with market regulators who often spot irregular trading through surveillance. Mr Barnacle said the FBI was seeking information from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-policing body . . .

Do the Feds really have confidence in engaging the industry funded police at FINRA? Just two months ago I highlighted the fact that the FINRA meter maids wrote a lot of tickets but few of very real substance.

What is the simple conclusion?

Self-regulation DOES NOT work on Wall Street. To think that an industry fixated on maximizing revenues will properly police itself is ridiculous. Until that reality is addressed, acknowledged, and changed, our nation as a whole will continue to suffer from the accompanying incestuous crony capitalism that brought us to this point in the first place.

Be very careful that you do not step in the piles of poop as you navigate accordingly.

Larry Doyle

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I have no affiliation or business interest with any entity referenced in this commentary. The opinions expressed are my own. I am a proponent of real transparency within our markets so that investor confidence and investor protection can be achieved.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 9:05 AM and is filed under FINRA, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.