Sense on Cents

This morning the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is questioning FDIC Head Sheila Bair, SEC Chair Mary Schapiro, Attorney General Eric Holder, and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.  We continue to hear from Bair, Schapiro, Holder, and Breuer about what changes are and will be occurring in the financial regulatory future more than we hear about what occurred in the past. A few questions about the regulatory past have not truly drilled down and they’ve been easily parried by Schapiro, primarily, but also by Bair and Holder.

The most egregious shortcoming in this morning’s questioning, though, is the fact that I have yet to hear anybody on the Commission question Ms. Schapiro about her role and responsibilities at FINRA, the Wall Street self-regulatory organization.

Schapiro continually references what is currently going on at the SEC. Current activities and future developments of the SEC are not the charge of this Commission. (more…)