Articles such as
this one are a brilliant indication of why we need the alternative press. Don Bauder used to write a business column for the conservative San Diego Union-Tribune before he left / was pushed out a couple of years ago. He now writes for the free local weekly
San Diego Reader , which has consistently beaten the local daily on big stories for a couple of years now. Here he has laid out the reasons explaining why Bush's appointment of Chris Cox to the SEC is such a disaster in the making.
The article explains just how the right wing GOPers are trying to pay back various corporate insiders by making securities enforcement all but impossible. This appointment is the single best indication that the post-Enron age of rectitude is over. It's back to thieving, boys.
Here's a key paragraph of this article:
Cox's sponsorship of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 helped open the door to Enron, WorldCom, Adelphia, San Diego's Peregrine Systems, ad nauseam, according to many critics. President Clinton vetoed the bill in late 1995, but Congress ultimately overrode the veto. The act did many things: suits had to be filed within a year of a fraud being committed; the statute of limitations was shortened; gathering of documents became more difficult; plaintiffs had to show there is a strong implication that defendants acted with intent to deceive, or "scienter." Judges have a lot of latitude on scienter; they can don blinders and never find it for some billionaire defendant.
It sounds like a lot of companies were given a nice little law to hide behind like a fig leaf as they screw over their investors. (An aside: Clinton vetoed this bill, but it was overridden. There were only 30 votes against it: 26 Dems and 4 Repubs. This was one of Joe Biden's better days.)
Bottom line: This appointment should supply more proof that the GOP really isn't interested in protecting your interests unless you are in senior management of a reasonably large company. Otherwise, why would they nominate someone described as "world-class payback to the corporate world"?
