The other week, I did a blog entry looking at how the Securities and Exchange Commission had investigated cases of where some of its best paid employees were watching the bottom line, literally, and surfing porn instead of watching Wall Street.
Now, the Washington Post tells us that no staffers have actually been fired for their horn dog activities. Of the 28 who were investigated, eight resigned, six were suspended for periods of one to 14 days, five were issued formal reprimands, six were issued informal counseling or warning letters, and three are facing disciplinary action.
That in itself might say something about the culture of the SEC which had let Bernard Madoff swindle investors despite numerous warnings from a whistleblower.
Still, you have to ask whether it was that bad compared to what was happening on Wall Street. My favorite line comes from Jay Leno: "During the economic meltdown, employees at the SEC were using government computers to watch pornography. Ironically, while they were watching porn, the other employees were watching Goldman Sachs screw the entire country." -
Actually Goldman Sachs was dealing in derivatives, imaginary securities that banks trade as a wager on the value of future risk or securities. A derivative is just a bet, it has no intrinsic value but Goldman Sachs was making billions off them. Then you have terms on Wall Street like naked calls, naked shorts, swing trades and straddles, the kind of stuff that you would expect to find in Hugh Hefner's memoirs.
The kind of stuff we have seen perpetrated by Goldman Sachs and the rest of Wall Street has been pretty obscene. Porn? I guess that's in the eyes of the beholder.
no comment untill now