[omarchowdhury]

Can you accurately and properly trace the blame for the financial crisis of 2008 onto the failings of the SEC?

[nikcub]

Three recent and well known high-profile failures at the SEC and books or articles covering them:

0. Enron - Senate committee concludes Enron was enabled by a systemic and catastrophic failure at the SEC[0]. Smartest Guys in the Room[1] is one of the better books about it

1. No One Would Listen - book from Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos[2]. He spent years laying out the entire Madoff case for the SEC yet their investigators kept signing off on Madoff. He has a lot of good detail on why the SEC are a bad regulator.

2. Financial Crisis - SEC chairman concedes the oversight program was fatally flawed in monitoring Bear Sterns and other hedge funds[3] - plenty of books on crisis, "After the Music Stopped" was good[4]

[0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1033944629262271233

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Smartest-Guys-Room-Amazing-Scandalous...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/No-One-Would-Listen-Financial/dp/0470...

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/business/27sec.html?mcubz=...

[4] https://www.amazon.com/After-Music-Stopped-Financial-Respons...

[hardwaresofton]

Can you accurately and properly trace the blame for any large scale malfunction of society on one small bureaucratic group?

Even if you pin the blame on bad actors that took control of ratings bodies and propogated bad CDOs, are you suggesting that the SEC was blameless? Would you not say it's within the purview of the SEC to manage/monitor/influence CDO product selling/purchasing?