Pointing to this policy, the five ex-regulators said regulation in the domestic energy market "started to take a radically different path in 2008", adding that "questions have been raised, including by some of us, as to the appropriateness and effectiveness of a number of these interventions".
Mary Schapiro, a former head of the SEC, recently joined Promontory, a consultancy packed with ex-regulators used by banks to cope with regulation (she has said she will not lobby any government body in her new role).
DealBook » Ex-Regulator Will Guide Barclays Compliancee | Hector Sants led the Financial Services Authority, Britain's top regulator, until stepping down in June, Mark Scott reported.
THURSDAY STYLES, PAGE G1 Ex-Regulator Changes Sides Michael K. Powell, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is joining a private equity firm that in recent years has built a $9 billion empire with holdings in media and telecommunications companies.
DealBook » Ex-Regulator Has Harsh Words for Bankers and Geithner | Adding to a growing collection of financial crisis histories, Sheila Bair, former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, takes aim at some regulatory colleagues, Mr. Protess and Mr. Eavis reported.
| Ex-regulators are finding a home with a powerful firm.
Critics counter that ex-regulators' inside knowledge enables clients to exploit overstretched public agencies.In some cases governments have become big clients themselves.
"An application of judicial power that does not rest on facts is worse than mindless, it is inherently dangerous," wrote Judge Jed Rakoff, in response to a settlement by Citigroup with the SEC.To cope with the deluge of litigation, banks are falling over themselves to hire ex-regulators, feeding the idea that the law is too chaotic to be understood by anyone outside the system.
After all, no one is more useful to Wall Street firms than an ex-regulator who can help them avoid getting punished for coming up with new "innovative financial products" that wind up screwing over the poor and middle classes.
This January, a Reuters report asked "How did [Stanford] keep authorities at bay for so long?" Answer: "In part... the legal advice he obtained from former SEC officials and other ex-regulators and law-enforcement officials".
Recalcitrants within Barclays would be wise not to underestimate him – the status of ex-chief regulator still carries weight.
