Today's Outrage: SEC's Cox Calls Kettle Black

Finally. An acknowledgement from SEC Chairman Chris Cox that his agency has been lying down on the job.

In what other media have called a "stunning rebuke," Cox ordered an internal investigation to find out why his staff attorneys failed to investigate Bernard Madoff's operations despite seeing so many red flags over the past decade.

Frankly, I'm not so stunned. It would be welcome sign if not for the fact that Cox is putting all the blame on his staff and taking none for himself. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black? Who runs that agency? Doesn't the buck stop there?

Let's not forget that under Cox's leadership, the SEC became infamous for looking the other way while Citigroup (C Quote), JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote), Merrill Lynch(MER Quote) and countless other banks made a mockery of the securities industry with their crazy plays on mortgages.

Oh, why do I bother ranting about the ineptitude of our regulators? I guess it's out of some naïve hope that we'll learn from our mistakes.