In my last post I discussed the beginning of futures trading enforcement actions under the Dodd-Frank legislation signed into law last year. This is not a perfect piece of legislation by any means, but it should help to correct for abuses that have occurred since the repeal of Glass-Steagall.
How confident can we be that federal regulators will actually carry out their enforcement duties when we see stories like this one in Rolling Stone? Apparently (also reported here in a shorter version) the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been destroying documents.
I doubt that anyone would be surprised that Wall Street banks and hedge funds engaged in lots of shady activity. Few would be surprised that the SEC clearly fell down on the job during the entire past decade. But even I am surprised that the SEC is alleged to have engaged in systematic cover-ups.
It's nice that Sen. Grassley is looking into the matter, but as my most recent post notes, he's one of the Republicans actively trying to thwart enforcement of Dodd-Frank. The expression "smoke and mirrors" comes to mind.
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