December 25, 2004
HOW MUCH IS THAT SPITZER IN THE WINDOW?:
Spitzer, in a Shift, Will Yield Inquiries to U.S. Regulators (PATRICK O'GILFOIL HEALY, 12/25/04, NY Times)
After nearly three years of high-profile prosecutions of investment banks, mutual funds and insurance companies, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York said yesterday that he is ready to cede those investigations to federal regulators.Mr. Spitzer said he believed the era of state attorneys general crusading against misdeeds on Wall Street was ending. He said he was concerned that 50 different investigations would balkanize regulations, and added that once-lax federal agencies had become more aggressive about rooting out fraud and wrongdoing.
The shift, first reported in The Financial Times, represents a remarkable turnabout for Mr. Spitzer, who has built a reputation as a giant-killer with his investigations of Merrill Lynch, one of the country's largest brokerage firms; Marsh & McLennan, the world's largest insurance broker; and Richard A. Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.
His decision comes just two weeks after he declared his candidacy for governor of New York in 2006, a campaign in which he will need to raise large sums to be competitive. Traditionally, many of those donations in a governor's race come from Wall Street...
He's established what he is, now we'll just haggle over his price. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 25, 2004 8:46 AM
Whatever Spitzer's motivation, he is correct when he says that securities reg is a matter for the Federal government. It's like banking and insurance regs and should be Federal rather than State. The economy is just too big.
Spitzer reminds me of what was once said of Bill Clinton when he was running for AG in Arkansas,'He's a smart young man who will go far, but G-d only knows what he'll do when he gets there.'
Posted by: Bart at December 25, 2004 11:55 AMRamesh Ponnuru from National Review wrote a great piece on Spitzer this summer. Let's just say his picture should appear next to "scumbag" in the dictionary.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at December 25, 2004 6:21 PM