Bush Administration Working to Weaken Rules Protecting Investors Created After Enron Collapse and Stock Market Meltdown of 2002

According to NY Times report "Accounting Plan Would Allow Use of Foreign Rules ": 

Apparently the Bush administration is pushing to breakdown what were considered pretty wimpy protections put in place after the Enron collapse and stock market meltdown.  The actions apparently will even sidestep some provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley the 2002 law that, as weak as it was, gave people some confidence to get back into the stock market.

One expert  quoted in the article called the new moves "outsourcing safety standards" likening it to using Chinese or Indian standards for auto safety.  

And on the second page you can read what a couple of Democratic Senators think of this deal.

And now that the SEC has bothered to get their Democratic minority they apparently can go ahead and hand your investment security to foreigners before the Bush administration leaves town. 

Even if you're not a Wall Street hot shot remember that most retirement moneys are tied up in the stock market and how it performs.  That makes it important to you (if you are like most) that people be able trust those markets. 

Interestingly, I heard on NPR a guy saying that UK rules that from what he said are very lassez faire and extremely capitalistic actually led conditions in which the nation had to take over some banks, a very socialist result. You'd think that would light up some red lights for the ultra capitalists.  But then you remember that the goal of such people is to privatize the profits while socializing the costs.  Companies no longer want to provide the needs of those who make their money for them, but instead want citizens to provide for their needs in extremities.

This is just another way we see an administration that is completely sold out to business and money subverting the intent of Congress.

I was taught in high school that the Executive branch of government's purpose was to 'execute' the will of the people as deduced and codified through laws passed by Congress.  You won't find that definition anymore except in the echoes of descriptions in student and practice governments. The presidency whether rightly or wrongly has evolved into an immensely powerful agent which can change our lives rapidly.  A couple of the Bush administration's more odious actions were rulings from the Department of labor that substituted 'flex time' which 'recipients' says they usually never receive for overtime pay in many positions, most of which would not be recognized as 'managerial' except in the mind of the Bush people who created the new rules, and rulings that increased Americans' payments to credit card companies by 50%.

Then we have the fact that the Bush administration has been able to lie to the press and Americans about job creation and losses with near impunity.  Two business writers have explained the incredible charade they found in new models for the monthly deductions of jobs gained and lost that make the jobs market look good.  Other economic and business writers ignore those findings and even declare the US not in a recession because the Bush administration's jobs numbers don't look so bad. 

Just to repeat myself.  Once quarter in 2006 the Bush administration announced in the widely distributed monthly 'jobs report' that half a million jobs had been created.  Now it did revise it's numbers and announce that too in a few months.  But the revision --only 19,000 jobs created, was to be found in small or quirky pieces in the back of the business section.  Understand what they are doing?  Half a million jobs was announced on the nightly news to your mom and dad or other relatives, friends, and lovers who listen to the newscasts thinking they're getting the facts.  The revision hidden in the business section many months later.  

The reason they give out a revision at all  is apparently so they can reduce the number of jobs lost.  If they had to stand by their number of half a million jobs gained in the one quarter of 2006 they would have had to take away nearly half a million jobs from the next jobs reports, but the quiet revision seems to allow them to never up to the actual poor jobs production of the Bush economy.  

We need to realize how important and powerful the presidency has become.  Something to think about as we head towards the November election of a new one.  

tags: sarbanesoxley  securities  stock  market  enron meltdown  sec  bush administration  

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