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??? 由奧巴馬總統提名擔任下一任美國證券交易委員會（SEC）主席的瑪麗?喬?懷特對于SEC而言肯定是一個不錯的選擇。但現在的問題是，她對于我們其余的人而言是否是正確的人選呢？

??? 顯然這里仍然存在一個看法問題，即SEC在亟待解決的華爾街犯罪問題方面的無力表現。這原本是2009年由奧巴馬任命的SEC主席瑪麗?夏皮羅的職責所在。但她并沒有很好地完成這項工作。的確，SEC對高盛（Goldman Sachs）的抵押債券（名為Abacus 2007-AC1）案開出了高達5.5億美元的罰單，并對花旗集團（Citigroup）和摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）的類似問題交易也做出罰金處理。此外，SEC還對Countrywide公司的安杰洛?莫茲羅處以2,250萬美元的個人罰款，為華爾街史上最大個人罰單。

????但是，那些都是例外。雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）及美國國際集團（AIG）等公司并沒有高管遭到起訴。法官杰德?拉可夫抨擊了SEC讓銀行逃脫嚴厲懲罰的政策。此外，馬特?泰比在《滾石》（Rolling Stone）雜志上援引SEC一位律師的話撰文稱，SEC正在掩蓋公司犯罪行為。

????懷特應該能夠重振SEC的強硬監管部門形象。在擔任紐約聯邦檢察官期間，她曾檢控黑幫老大約翰?戈蒂和恐怖分子。據報道，她還曾拒絕簽署克林頓任總統期間對石油交易商馬克?里奇的赦免令，并一度介入調查。KBW公司負責華盛頓研究的布萊恩?加德納說，更重要的是，懷特過去一直對公司罪名檢控持局限的觀點。這意味著懷特不可能讓大型企業去全面承擔那些只可能是個人做出的不當行為所導致的責任。加德納在一份寫給客戶的研究報告中稱：“我們預計SEC的調查會變得更激進，但同時也會變得更徹底。”

????但是，那樣的SEC是我們現在真正需要的SEC嗎？對金融危機相關犯罪稽查的時間窗口正在迅速關閉。并且，執法只是SEC的職責之一。SEC也需要規范市場，確保它對所有人都是公平的。例如，高頻交易者目前很可能可以放心地舒口氣了。夏皮羅曾一度對相關領域進行調查，但懷特在這一領域并沒有豐富經驗。

????現在看來，我們目前需要的人選要能夠制定多德-弗蘭克法案仍然沒有最終敲定的規則，它們不僅有望限制華爾街瀆職行為，還能遏制愚蠢行為傾向。

????通常情況下，SEC主席要么來自監管機構，要么來自華爾街。過去十年，懷特一直在Debevoise ＆Plimpton律師行擔任律師。她曾為肯?劉易斯辯護，后者被指控在擔任美國銀行（Bank of America）行長期間在收購美林（Merrill Lynch）這一交易上誤導了投資者。此外，她所在的律師團隊曾為高盛前董事拉雅?古普塔受到的內幕交易指控進行辯護。她曾任職于摩根大通（JPMorgan）及摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）董事會。【另注，懷特也曾為《財富》（Fortune）雜志母公司時代華納（Time Warner）做過辯護，當時唐納德?川普就時代華納出版的書籍《王牌國度》（Trump Nation）提起訴訟。】

????上一位由華爾街辯護律師晉升為SEC主席的人是哈維?皮特，但皮特在SEC任期短暫，大多被視為一個災難性的人物。（皮特稱，懷特將在SEC主席這個職位上大有作為）。

????Mary Jo White, President Obama's nominee to be the next head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is certainly a great choice for the SEC. The question is whether she is the right pick for the rest of us.

??? There clearly remains a perception issue that the SEC is weak on Wall Street crime that needs to be fixed. Mary Schapiro, appointed by Obama in 2009, was supposed to correct that. But she didn't quite get the job done. Yes, there was the $550 million fine against Goldman Sachs (GS) for constructing the ill-fated mortgage bond Abacus, and similar ones with Citigroup (C) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). And the SEC got Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo to personally pay a $22.5 million fine, the largest by an individual in history.

????But those were the exceptions. No executives were ever charged at Lehman Brothers or AIG (AIG). Judge Jed Radkoff bashed the SEC for its policy of allowing banks to get off with slaps on the wrist. And there was the Rolling Stone tale by Matt Taibbi of the SEC lawyer who said the SEC was covering up corporate crime.

????White should be able to reinstate the SEC's image as a tough regulator. As United States attorney in New York, she pursued mob boss John Gotti and terrorists. She reportedly refused to sign off on President Clinton's pardon of oil trader Mark Rich, and briefly investigated it. What's more, KBW's Brian Gardner, who heads up the firm's Washington research, says White in the past has taken a limited view of what crimes corporations could be charged with. Meaning White is less likely to allow large corporations to swallow the blame for misconduct that could only have been committed by individuals. "We expect the SEC's investigations to become more aggressive but, at the same time, more thorough," Gradner wrote in a note to clients.

????But is that what we really need at the SEC right now? The window for pursing crimes from the financial crisis is rapidly closing. And enforcement is only one part of what the SEC does. It also needs to regulate the market to make sure it's fair for everyone. High-frequency traders, for example, can probably breathe a sigh of relief, for now. Shapiro had been examining their turf, but this is not an area in which White has a lot of experience.

????What we need now, it seems, is someone who can lay down the rules, still not finalized from Dodd-Frank, that will not just hopefully limit Wall Street malfeasance but its propensity for stupidity as well.

????Typically, SEC chairmen have either come from the ranks of regulators or from Wall Street itself. White has spent the past decade at Debevoise & Plimpton. She defended Ken Lewis against allegations that he misled investors in the acquisition of Merrill Lynch when he was head of Bank of America. And she was part of the legal team that defended former Goldman board member Rajat Gupta against insider trading charges. She has worked for JPMorgan and the board of Morgan Stanley. (On another note, White also defended Fortune's parent company, Time Warner, in a suit filed by Donald Trump over a book it published, TrumpNation.)

????The last person to go from Wall Street defense attorney to the head of the SEC was Harvey Pitt, and Pitt's tenure at the SEC was brief and mostly seen as a train wreck. (Pitt says White will make a great SEC head.)