The Securities and Exchange Commission blew a perfect opportunity to redefine its role with its decision last week to accept a $550m settlement with Goldman Sachs over accusations that the bank misled various investors in a subprime mortgage product at the start of the US housing crash. In its founding legislation, Congress empowered the SEC both to protect investors and to ensure a fair and efficient market. The settlement may have accomplished the first goal. But it also showed the SEC's continuing failure to take its wider regulatory role in a more aggressive direction.
美國證券交易委員會(SEC) 7月16日決定，接受高盛(Goldman Sachs)支付5.5億美元，就該銀行在美國住宅市場崩潰之初出售的一種次貸產品上誤導了各類投資者的指控達成和解。SEC由此錯失了一次重新定義自身角色的絕佳機會。在成立SEC的立法中，美國國會賦予了SEC保護投資者和確保市場公平有效的權力。與高盛的和解或許實現了第一個目標，但這也表明，SEC仍未能朝著更有進攻性的方向發揮其更廣泛的監管職能。