Obama’s SEC & CFTC Pick Is Nothing But Business As Usual

January 14, 2009

The Facts

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Schapiro was the head of the financial industry’s regulatory body. As such, she stood by and did nothing as Wall Street went wild. Gensler actually helped draft legislation that exempted derivatives, including credit-default swaps, from regulation. So why is Obama picking these two to be part of the “change” we have heard so much about?

My View (and some more facts)

Barack Obama promised the American people there would be change in Washington that the people would be pleased with. While many of his cabinet and other nominees & appointees could represent change, the two he has picked for the SEC and CFTC will give us nothing more but the same crap we have now which allowed Wall Street to go wild and plunge the country and the world into a financial turmoil.

Mary Schapiro has a colorful history with the financial industry. She is considered an “American financial regulator”. From 1996 through 2006 she held a senior position with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), becoming the CEO of NASD in 2006. As CEO she consolidated NASD with the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Member Regulation, which became the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FIRA). FIRA is responsible for overseeing all securities firms doing business with the public. As a combined organization, oversight dropped considerably as did enforcement and fines. And Mary Schapiro was right in the middle of all that. So what the hell is Obama doing picking her to head the SEC?

Gary Gensler is a Goldman Sachs boy; the same as Henry Paulson. Gensler was a partner there and co-head of Goldman’s finance. And we all know what happened to Goldman Sachs. Gensler also worked in the Clinton administration at the Treasury Department. While there he worked on the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 and helped get it passed. That act exempted credit default swaps and other derivatives from regulation. So, once again, what the hell is Obama doing picking him to head the CFTC?

79% of Americans can’t wait for George W. Bush to leave office and take with him the thieves that allowed our financial world to become more corrupt than they already were, then stole the taxpayer’s money and gave it to those same corrupt people. Now Barack Obama is basically saying he will install some of those same thieves in some of the same offices that let that happen. Where the hell is the “change” in that?