(Picture Courtesy of Time Magazine)
As if the OC GOP didn’t have enough problems – it now appears that former Orange County Congressman Chris Cox played a huge role in the meltdown of our nation’s financial sector, while he was perhaps the lamest Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as revealed in a new Time Magazine investigation.
Historians looking for an early sign that the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression might be deeper than expected could do worse than listen in on a predawn teleconference one Friday last spring. Top Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank officials hunched over their phones in a last-ditch bid to bail out the giant investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. But a crucial voice was missing from the emergency conference call: Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
And it was not the only time the nation’s chief securities regulator was absent during that critical weekend. On Saturday, as bailout talks continued, Cox dropped out to give a speech at the birthday party of a securities-industry overseer. On Sunday, Cox was a no-show once again, this time for a key conference call dealing with the multibillion-dollar sale of Bear Stearns’ remaining assets to JPMorgan Chase. Less than a week later, the SEC chairman slipped away for a long-planned Caribbean holiday.
The man who should have played a major role in sounding the alarm about–and perhaps preventing–America’s financial meltdown now stands accused by critics of being asleep on the job. While Cox did participate in some of that weekend’s deliberations, federal officials involved in the process say he was a bit player, and Cox himself notes that he was skeptical about the bailout. Though he left the SEC on Jan. 20, he has emerged as a symbol of much of what went wrong at the small but crucial federal agency, from ignoring evidence of a massive Ponzi scheme set up by investment guru Bernard Madoff to the passive supervision of giant investment banks that went under on his watch. Partly as a result of this lax supervision, the future of the 75-year-old agency is in jeopardy.
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*Chris was always nice to us….This Global Meltdown was even way above his pay grade!
When the truth is finally told…..it won’t be
the SEC that will be the fall guy. Chris
didn’t in Credit Default Swaps, Adjustable APR
Resets, Sub-Prime Mortgages or Freddy and Fannie.
Could he have done more….yes, he could have
resigned in 2006!
The missing word is: “INVENT”..sorry!
Hey, My nephew is Chris Cox and he’s a cool guy!
His Dad is even cooler!
duplojohn,
Cox had a great reputation before he took over at the SEC. It is too bad his career had to end this way – and it is too bad we all got screwed in the process.
It is practically a Greek tragedy…