Unaccountable external auditors

Adapted from a chapter in “HOW THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT,” edited by Susan Will, Stephen Handelman and David C. Brotherton. Copyright © 2012 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been pelted with criticism for its failure to monitor the investment banks and other irresponsible entities whose reckless behavior, shenanigans and financial crimes collectively triggered what become known as the “Great Economic Meltdown” in 2008 and beyond.

Presumably because of the lack of adequate funding, the SEC failed to stem the self-indulgent excesses of real estate brokers and financial institutions involved in the subprime lending racket and toward Wall Street investment firms that were avidly marketing toxic mortgage derivatives. The peddlers of these polluted and often largely incomprehensible papers, not coincidentally, were reaping extremely high profits.