House Panel Votes to Increase Clout of Regulators

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/04/us/politics/AP-US-Financial-Overhaul.html

The House Financial Services Committee voted Wednesday to give federal regulators more power and money to police major players in the stock market, four months after Bernard Madoff was sentenced for the biggest investment scam in history.

The 41-28 vote was the panel's latest move to try to rein in abuses on Wall Street. It would give the Securities and Exchange Commission new enforcement powers, including the ability to offer bounty money to tipsters on fraud cases and the power to bar violators of the law from employment in any securities-related industry.

The bill also would double the SEC's budget in the next five years.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski sponsored the legislation after leading the panel's investigation into the government's failure to uncover Madoff's massive fraud scheme for nearly two decades. Madoff was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison.

[notesdev]

1. Problem is

these are the same regulators who didn't use the tools they had and helped greatly to cause the mess in the first place - why will giving them new powers to not use help?

[Vidar]

2. Good, though the time to do this was before the bail out.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Better late than never.

But not good enough, really.