SEC: Do as We Say, Not as We Do

Perhaps it would have been better if regulators had merely "been asleep at the switch," as President-elect Barack Obama said last week.

Sadly, the reality is much worse for at least some workers at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who have been very busy doing things other than what they were hired to do.

Its semi-annual report to Congress -- which was conveniently released the Wednesday after Thanksgiving -- read like a shopping list of things not to do at work. After reading this report it's no wonder Bernie Madoff got away with as much as he did. Perhaps the newly nominated SEC chairman Mary Shapiro will do a better job than Christopher Cox in getting the workers to do the jobs they were actually hired for. ...