Corporate America has faced governance problems similar to those in the capital. If America were a corporation, investors and regulators would consider its corporate governance a mess. CEO Joe Biden can’t seem to agree with the board—Congress—on strategy, priorities, the budget, or pretty much anything else. Some directors are going ...

The SEC can take steps right now to curb the day-trading frenzy and help safeguard the investing public. They say history occurs first as tragedy, then as farce — I fear we're about to see that in U.S. financial markets. Two decades ago, U.S. financial markets were riding all-time records. Day traders were using chat rooms to swap what ...

Nasdaq wants to mandate wider representation on its companies’ boards but has little proof of the benefits. Corporate directors are called on to do a few important things: Hire a CEO and oversee management, provide strategic direction, protect and promote the interests of investors, and ensure the company’s books are honest. Now, many ...

The commission’s ‘buyer beware’ announcement looks tough but actually is irresponsible. Securities markets in the U.S. have long been the center of the universe for mobilizing and allocating capital. Registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission is the gold standard for a system that allows investors and issuers to choose ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission should press for better disclosures, not fewer. In my career in the securities industry, I have seen that a rising stock market brings falling interest in transparency, risk awareness and investor protections. With every new high in the Dow Jones industrial average someone seeks to further diminish our ...

A proposal to exempt certain companies from a full audit would encourage fraud and hurt investors. Sometimes the best argument for an idea is also the most damning. In May, as the Securities and Exchange Commission weighed a proposal to exempt more small companies from certain audit requirements, Republican SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, ...

Ronald Reagan used to say that the surest way to live forever was to become a federal program. If that's right, the surest way to die is to be studied by Congress. In Washington, becoming the subject of legislative scrutiny virtually guarantees inaction, the disappearance of funding and political support, and ultimate demise.That's precisely ...

The SEC’s plan to create special exchanges sounds like a solution in search of a problem. Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission are contemplating setting up a special exchange for small-cap companies—those with a market capitalization of less than $250 million. Proponents say many small companies need access to public markets, ...

Faster buying and selling is being blamed unfairly for some problems caused by the fragmentation of markets.

A firestorm of criticism has erupted again against high-frequency trading. It is alleged to give a select group of traders an unfair advantage over the public and even over institutional investors such as mutual funds and pension funds. It has been likened to electronic ...

The SEC's attack on American companies' hiring practices in China is scurrilous and hypocritical. As someone who spent the first few years of his career in the shadow of a well-known family member (my father was New York state comptroller), I can say that it was a great asset to me. But not in the ways people ...

A former member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently asked me to co-sign a letter urging a federal oversight body to refrain from taking regulatory action normally left to the SEC. I believe deeply in the independence of the agency I once led, but in this case, I could not place my loyalty to the organization above the ...

With a proper backup plan, the New York Stock Exchange wouldn't have had to shut because a 'post-tropical cyclone' hit Manhattan..

Hurricane Sandy's impact on U.S. stock and bond markets is just the latest example of inattention to the stability, security and continuity of basic infrastructure. The result of this inattention is a financial market that aspires to be world-class, but in one critical ...