Accountants Make Miserable Policemen: Rethinking Federal Securities Laws
North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, Vol. 28, 2003
Florida International University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 10-21
89 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2010 Last revised: 24 Jun 2010
Date Written: 2003
Abstract
This Article describes the background of the federal securities laws and the assumptions about full disclosure that where made to justify the intrusive legislation. It also considers the problems encountered by the SEC in the nearly seven decades that have passed since the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and then reviews the market meltdown over the last three years and describes how full disclosure regulation failed. Finally, the author focuses on a principal flaw in the system – the misguided effort to turn accountants into policeman.
Keywords: Stock Market Crash of 1929, securities, derivatives trading, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), Glass-Steagall Act, Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA), derivative instruments, retail markets, global markets, full disclosure
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