GOP resistance to regulation paved way for accounting scandals

[Dover]

Excellent article (long). Really refreshing to see that some papers and reporters still do investigative reports:

DAY ONE: Resistance to business regulation paved way for accounting scandals:
Oxley rejected calls for safeguards before major corporations collapsed

By DAVE MURRAY and JOE MAHR
BLADE STAFF WRITERS


WASHINGTON — Arthur Levitt knew there was a problem — one that could drain the savings of millions of Americans.
The government's top Wall Street watchdog had cut his teeth as a stockbroker in New York — a place where executives always tried to make their profits look big, and where accountants tried to keep them honest.

But by the 1990s, the lines were blurring. Accountants were now making more money on corporate consulting than on corporate auditing.

As chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Levitt saw a clear conflict of interest, and in 2000 he decided to try to stop the practice.

He didn't get far.

Standing in his way was the accounting industry and some of its best friends in Congress — including Mike Oxley, chairman of a subcommittee that oversaw the SEC. The industry showered Mr. Oxley and other congressmen with campaign cash. They beat back Mr. Levitt's attempts at reform.

A year later Enron would become a household name — the first in a series of dramatic corporate collapses caused by the failure of accountants, executives, and bankers......cont'd

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031207/SROXLEY/31207007

[ellie]

1. Hi Dover!

I am so glad I picked up the Blade yesterday! It is refreshing to see investigative reporting. Oxley's a real piece of work.

[Dover]

7. Great.......and congrats to your hometown paper! Please keep us

posted on future editions to this investigation.

[priller]

2. Telling quote:

As for the financial scandals that have rocked America — scandals that Mr. Levitt and other critics had warned Mr. Oxley about and which cost Ohio's public pension funds about $800 million — the congressman offers a shrug about why he didn't see them coming.

“I'm good, but I'm not that good,” he said.

Ah yes, incompetence as a defense, another thing the Bush era has given us. If he was honest (I know, I know), he would shrug his shoulders and say, "I don't give a flying f---. I've got my money, I'll be re-elected, why should I care?"

[ellie]

4. Exactly

In the print version, there was an introduction that I didn't see in the online version. This is very telling and what really upsets me about these money-grabbers:

"Yet voters continue to send him back to Washington, election after election, with even some top local Democrats touting the work of their hometown boy.

But his critics say he's popular back home only because his constituents don't know what he's become and how he really works for now.

He's become one of the GOP's best fund-raisers dining with some of the country's top business leaders, taking their checks, and flying to Europe with his wife every summer on their dime to hobnob with them. But he hasn't been willing to meet with jobless steelworkers back home, even those who have run after his car begging him for help."

People were running after his car and begging him for help and he didn't have time to associate with the rabble? I really don't understand people. He will continue to get voted in because all he has to do is wave the flag, invoke God, and talk about gay marriage and the people will vote against their best interests. In fact, once the three-part series is over, I am going to write that letter to the Blade. Maybe it will wake some people up to the tatics these thugs use.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Thank you.

It's about frickin time someone started talking about what, to me, has been obvious for a looooooong time.

[coda]

5. As well as Democrat resistance

Senators Schumer, Bayh, Torricelli, Wyden wrote letters opposing the accounting rule changes, but that was about the extent of it.

It was Chris Dodd (on the Dem side) who put a lot of pressure on Leavitt to leave it alone. Dodd is as bad as Oxley on this.

Thanks for the story.

:kick:

[donhakman]

6. NOW with Bill Moyers...

recetly did the most comprehesive documentary on this. I urge people to read the transcript from the PBS website/NOW.