Overheard at Booth 4: The Teeth of the SEC

• In class we were talking about whether or not the SEC still has "teeth,"  and in my opinion it once had teeth, but sort of pulled them out itself . . . look, in 2004, who was it that changed their own leverage rules for the five big Wall Street banks?   The SEC.   These guys had a 12-to-1 leverage limit.   2004 - the sky is now the limit.  Do whatever you want.   Go for it.   And they did.   Four years later, BOOM!
  
  I'd say that if the SEC had just kept its "teeth" it would have been a helluva lot harder for those bad boys to play with the US economy like they were some wild-eyed frat boys on a drunken binge in Atlantic City.      But that's just my opinion.