But having seen his tactics, especially the reluctance to go to trial, losing when he does go to trial (then attempting through with a retrial even after he loses bigtime–see the older post), and using threats of expanded prosecution when his targets don’t grovel enough–the guy is out of control. He’s a prosecutor, not a legislator. I don’t think underenforcement by the regulators justifies Spitzer’s tactics. He needs to charge people with crimes, bring them to trial and convict them. But apparently that’s too much work.

I get the impression the new guy Chris Cox (yeah, the China missile technology Chris Cox) at the SEC will strike an appropriate balance between the investor, MFs, and listed companies (MF supposedly stands for mutual funds, but it also stands for what some of them really are).

Favorite line from the article:

> an area of regulation historically reserved to the
> federal Securities and Exchange Commission

Emphasis on historically. With the foxes guarding the hen house the states have had to step up to the plate.

It’s fun listening to the poor wittle Wall Street Journal editorial board take a break from promoting Enron type deregulation and failed billion dollar weapon systems like Star Wars to weep and moan about being picked on by Elliot Spitzer. Awwww… poor babies.