BEg2 Baedeker / captive regulator

[rich]

to respond to David's point, I don't think it's an issue of statutes, which
is just the effect the market has on the SEC, an after-effect I mean. My
point is, which results in what Mark is saying about lack of
investigations, that things do not necessarily have a conspiratorial
nefarious explanation. I doubt there are a hundred people who truly
understand collateral debt obligations, derivatives and the like. it's all
packaged by physics and maths phds. most of everyone else on the street is
just executing orders. But smart people will go towards where the money is
as well as where their skills can be challenged. it's just natural. am i
happy many smart people are using their talents this way? not really.
In the long run, I don't believe it is healthy to undermine institutions in
such a way, whether from the radical left or right, that things we take for
granted no longer start working. it's easy to highlight the shortcomings of
institutions, and heck there's a lot to highlight, but we must try to
improve them, not tear them down. The media has a hand in this, of course,
but tensions in western democracies are reaching dangerous levels of
rhetoric, while autocratic nations improve themselves, though the models of
China, Russia and others are just as damaged--closed societies never
prosper. you require diverse talent. in some ways they are dinosaurs.
In any case, I find it hard to square, going back to Pynchon, his late work
anti-establishment sympathies with the current environment.  he seems to be
just another loud voice screaming at the US emperor (who doesnt really
exist) melting with other radicals and counter-radicals. maybe that's
unfair. the legacy of paranoia and conspiracy I guess

rich



On Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 5:09 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would think part of Pynchon's meaning is, is it can't be seen unless
> someone is looking for it.
>
> On Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 7:41 PM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> re: C) not sure if rubber stamp is the right term. The SEC is perpetually
>> underfunded and the market is way ahead of regulators in resources, talent
>> and, for lack of a better word, innovation. They are always playing catch
>> up.
>>
>> rich
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 2:58 PM Michael Bailey <
>> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > A) Pynchon seems to have done a Baedeker type sourcing thing with ACFE
>> > material - is what I was driving at & hoping somebody would know more
>> about
>> > the specific financial things - which afaik aren’t all that widely known
>> >
>> > B) he seems to have taken an interest in ACFE to the point of lampooning
>> > their logo and having Maxine emote, albeit briefly, as intensely about
>> her
>> > relationship with them as she ever does about her marriage. Maybe more
>> so.
>> >
>> > C) while this stuff was there for trained eyes to see, the SEC was and
>> > remains a somewhat captive regulator, rubber stamping all but the most
>> > egregious abuses - & sometimes even rubber stamping those (eg Madoff)
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>