A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street. (emphasis added)
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What should be noted in the collapse of AIG/Lehman is that Christopher Cox, Chairman of the SEC, worked hard to repeal many of the "circuit breakers" that were in place that could have aided to avoid the quick drop of the share prices. Both Lehman and AIG have very valuable assets and while I am not saying they didn't really really screw up, because the short sellers on the market had no "uptick rule" or "borrowing stipulations" that would made it hard to just drive the prices down through short selling. This is why the shares fell so fast and so quickly this for these stocks, and with a low price they didn't have a "currency" to sell to get some short term money. If the stock hadn't dropped so much and didn't experience such volatility, stock could have been sold to get short term cash that could have held AIG/Lehman over for 45-60 days as they sold off some valuable assets. Thus, the market could have corrected itself. (yes, I am over simplifying).
removing the short sale tick test"
And today, putting rules back in place. (better late than never)
New SEC Short-Selling Rules Vow 'Zero Tolerance'
Hmmm... I wonder who appointed Cox? Regardless, it points out (at least to me) that many people should be held accountable and of course they will not.
Christopher Cox is the 28th Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was appointed by President Bush on June 2, 2005, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2005. He was sworn in on August 3, 2005.
This is from the bio on the SEC site.
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