Which Companies Are Buying the #Election? - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/28/opinion/which-companies-are-buying-the-election-securities-and-exchange-commission.
The bipartisan silence testified to the growing importance to both parties of anonymous campaign donations. With each passing year since 2010, when the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United opened the floodgates to secretive political giving, politicians appear to value so-called dark money more and value disclosure of unnamed donors less. The issue was finally broached by Representative Michael Capuano, Democrat of Massachusetts. He observed that shareholders have a right to know how corporate cash is spent, and demanded to know why the #S.E.C. has not required disclosure. Ms. White gave the same answer she has given since she became chairwoman in 2013 — essentially, that the agency is too busy with more important issues.
Since then, however, the S.E.C. has added new issues to its agenda, while neglecting to put political-spending disclosure on its to-do list. The omission is indefensible, because the investors’ need to know will only grow as the level of anonymous giving rises.
#SEC illustrates regulator too cozy with the industry it regulates - SFGate
▻http://m.sfgate.com/opinion/article/SEC-illustrates-regulator-too-cozy-with-the-6161571.php
In 2013, the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight published a study showing that “more than 400 SEC alumni filed almost 2,000 disclosure forms saying they planned to represent an employer or client before the agency.” In light of that, financial expert Yves Smith, who first flagged the Stanford video at her website, #Naked_Capitalism, said Bowden’s comments spotlight a deeper problem at the agency.
“Bowden’s most attractive career option, assuming he does not move into a more senior role at the SEC first, would be to join a private equity firm as a chief compliance officer,” she wrote. “The fact that Bowden made such an unabashed statement of his real loyalties, to his future meal tickets, is a strong and troubling sign that this sort of cozying up is a non-issue at (the) SEC.”
Such “cozying up” is the definition of regulatory capture. We can at least thank the SEC for providing such an easy-to-understand illustration of how it operates.
#Etats-Unis #conflit_d’intérêt #corruption_légale #démocratie