"Many of us have lost confidence in the SEC," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York. (Reported at yesterday's Congressional hearing on Bernie Madoff.)

You go, girl!

"Where can we go to get the proper oversight? I don't have trust in them (the SEC) for the future," she said.

End the SEC! It's useless! It's garbage! It's a complete joke!

I was watching a CNBC special report today, an hour-long investigation of Bernie Madoff. How could he have gotten away with it for so long? There were many camera shots of the Lipstick building on Third Avenue, just a few blocks from my old home on East 57th Street. Madoff operations occupied three floors.

Harry Markopolis had first written to the SEC in 1999, claiming that Madoff was a Ponzi scheme. It was merely a $10 billion Ponzi scheme back then. In 2005, Markopolis wrote to the SEC once again. This didn't have to be a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. The losers? Many New Yorkers and many Jewish charities.

The SEC did NOTHING! How did Bernie Madoff finally get caught? Simple--the stock market tanked! He could no longer get the new cash to pay off the old cash. If the market hadn't tanked, Madoff would still be out there operating, maybe forever, getting bigger all along. 

CNBC called Madoff the "scam of the century." People cry about Enron. But Lehman Brothers was bigger than both of them!

When I bought 1,000 shares of Lehman Brothers preferred stock on the "advice" of my stockbroker in February 2008, it had been rated A+. In reality, the stock had been worthless. Who sanctioned this rating agency that supposedly assessed risk? The SEC!

Has anyone gone to jail for fraud in the Lehman Brothers case? Of course not!

Because it wasn't just Lehman CEO Dick Fuld. It was also his accountants. It was the rating agencies that never assessed the risks. But finally, it was the SEC that allowed all of this fraud. It knew that the ratings agencies were a joke to dupe the public, but the SEC did nothing.

You want to talk about crime? Say, a guy goes into a Burger King with a gun, says "Give me all your money!" Maybe he makes off with $1,000. He's public enemy #1. He gets caught. He goes to jail for perhaps the rest of his life.

But here you have Wall Street, and they steal BILLIONS! And the cop on the beat, the SEC, says...says...hello, are you there, SEC?

Carolyn Maloney, don't let them get away with this crime! I moved out of NYC, but you used to be my Congresswoman. The criminals must go to jail, but the cop on the beat who was never on the beat is just as culpable. Maybe more culpable, because the public ASSUMED that there was a cop actually on the beat, looking out for them. The SEC was worse than a toothless, look-the-other-way cop--it allowed and encouraged worthless investments and Ponzi schemes to be sold. Reform requires much more than changing a few heads and desks. 

DISBAND THE SEC! NOW! GIVE "EM HELL, CAROLYN!

LINK:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/28256310/

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE5045J220090106