A Snarky Commentary From Bill Singer
About an SEC Ponzi Case and the Politics of Regulation

http://www.brokeandbroker.com/index.php?a=blog&id=676

This is how today's BrokeAndBroker Blog from Bill Singer ends:

Prosecutors and regulators are now ramping up insider-trading cases and also a host of antitrust cases against the municipal bond industry. Hey, don't get me wrong -- there are likely many bad guys and criminals involved. However, look at SEC v. Merendon Mining et al., -- look at the destruction that is alleged to have been brought upon 3,000 investors by the Structurists.  Don't you feel the nagging tug?  Why wasn't this fraud detected years ago? Don't you wonder whether it's time to re-focus Wall Street's regulation from where it was (and still appears to be) towards more pre-emptive efforts that will protect the mom-and-pop investor?

I submit that the scamsters in SEC v. Merendon Mining et al. were not particularly adroit or clever but that their purported adversaries -- the securities industry's cops -- were not particularly adroit or clever. As far as I can tell, there must have been some lovely donut shop where all the regulators were passing the years, dunking and asking for refills.  Nowadays, to make matters worse, not only are those same cops still not particularly adroit or clever but they have embarked upon an agenda that seems calculated, at best, to generate headlines involving cases that may be siphoning off much need bodies and dollars from more pernicious frauds.

You know, when we talk about choosing between the lesser of two evils, we must always keep in mind that it is still a choice between two evils. The given in this debate is that insider trading and bid rigging are evils. The other given is that small fry investors seem to have been abandoned while attention is focused elsewhere.  Like I said, the "Politics of Regulation."

Frankly, today's column is a must-read for Wall Street professionals and public investors. It begins with a detailed analysis of a major Ponzi scheme. It ends with a number of troubling questions.

 A Snarky Commentary From Bill Singer
About an SEC Ponzi Case and the Politics of Regulation

http://www.brokeandbroker.com/index.php?a=blog&id=676