Sec Watched Porn During Economic Meltdown

Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” Song of Solomon 2.15 KJV

The SEC watchdogs were licking themselves while the foxes from Wall Street raided the American hen house. I think that just about sums up the news story part of this discussion. Revelations have come out that agents of the SEC were spending vast amounts of time in diligent search of porn. One chap fought his way around over 16,000 warnings in his search of porn. Not only were they spending large portions of every workday looking for fresh titillation, but there was a huge increase in this behavior after the 2008 meltdown began.

This is the instructive part of this sordid little tale. I realize job is a nebulous term in government bureaucracy, but weren’t they hired to monitor the financial sector? Why would the amount of time they had for leisure increase during the height of a financial crisis?

The answer that comes to my mind is clear and simple. They stayed even further away from their ostensive jobs as monitors because they were told to do so. So far the SEC has been a toothless, senseless watchdog who sleeps through every violation and excess and only acts when goaded repeatedly into action. Not only were these agents trained to sloth and indolence by years of abiding by the holy covenant between the government regulators and corporations in every sector. The corporations pretend to observe regulations and the regulators pretend to monitor. It is a very polite little dance with precise rules to be sure neither party is ever upset by having reality intrude upon their little cotillion.

I am sure the agents knew from years of learned behavior that it was best to wait. For even when finally roused from slumber the hounds of the SEC tend to bark more and bite less. Any overzealous agent who uncovered problems with a corporation is sure to be accused of damaging a corporation’s free market rights. The sin of offending profit is the ultimate sin against capitalism and can easily cost a fellow his “job”. So naturally, our highly paid SEC agents chose to search for chicks on the internet rather than a fox in the henhouse. Waiting to see if this was another little scandal that would wash away with the next news cycle.

The agents watched more porn in 2008 than in 2006 because they were even less engaged in monitoring during the height of the crisis. But, they were not disengaged from any extraordinary lack of work ethic on their part. They sat idle because the whole recent history of American corporate regulation told them to sit idle until their bosses were given the go ahead for some real investigation, however feeble.

In fact, the scandal did last more than a news cycle and the SEC was finally wakened to some action. But do not be deceived - the SEC is more a doorman for the financial corporations than a guard. They know and the corporations know that they will never be allowed to interfere with business.

This small and fragile fraud case against Goldman Sachs is a perfect example. If it is pursued and a judgment goes against Goldman Sachs the fine levied is likely to be so small in comparison with their profits that is will disappear into the rounding errors on their financial statement. Worse yet, this whole case is just as likely to be set up as a mere morality play in which Goldman sallies forth to demonstrate their diligence and honor as custodians of America’s paper wealth. It is not beyond the corruption of the relationship to believe that this is a setup case to prove that some few – aka Fabrice Tourre did some bad things but the noble folks of Goldman were right on his heels and about to fire him anyway.

Fab will walk away with a scarlet A on his designer suit and walk straight into a limo and onto another high paying job in Finance. He will be a well paid and well looked after scapegoat that clears the Wall Street foxes and lets the SEC hounds return to napping on the porch.


SOURCES
NPR story on porn at the SEC
LINK
 
Second Song of Solomon, King James version of the bible