Maybe They Need Their Balls Back

Some of you may have heard of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC as it's usually referred to in the alphabet soup of governmental organizations.

The SEC has avoided the limelight for a very long time. But then Bernard Madoff with everyone's money! AAAAAH HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Who's to blame for the Madoff nightmare? The SEC, of course. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike are pretty pissed that the SEC let this Bernard fella pull the wool over everyone's eyes without so much of a "Hey, whatchu doin', buddy?" from the SEC.

I'm not remotely an expert on the economy or regulation, massive fraud or the SEC, but I feel pretty safe jumping to the conclusion that, during our last (nearly) three decades of deregulation and widespread evisceration of governmental oversight bureaucracies, the Securities and Exchange Commission has lost any ability to do its job to the fullest extent of its theoretical power. I'm guessing the SEC is desperately understaffed, and I'd bet too that the people in charge are ideologues who support a complete lack of regulation and oversight. Just the people you want in charge of regulation and oversight.

Don't get me wrong: the SEC really screwed the pooch here. But the economic right-wing tends to use a failure of regulation to demonstrate the need to eliminate regulation altogether. I call horseshit on you, economic right-wing.

Instead, let's give the SEC a reverse Bris. Untie the tubes. De-castrate the poor bastards.

President Obama, please give the SEC its balls back.