Wall Street exec pay to go on trial

And, good! A federal judge has rejected a deal between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America. NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is already lining up state-level charges.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, in his ruling, found that the settlement "suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the SEC gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger, the bank's management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth."

He also called the deal “not remotely fair.”

"I've never seen this," said James Cox, a Duke University law professor and securities law expert. "To me, it's long overdue," he added. "It's truly a come-to-Jesus moment for Bank of America and its relationship with its various officers," Duke Cox said. "They need to hang up a scalp or two."

Or half a dozen scalps. I love it!

And, I’m glad a judge got, in essence, mad as hell to force this.

Now, let’s see what comment the Obama Administration SEC, or Department of Justice, has tomorrow.

SEC wants to know more about Steve Jobs’ health

More specifically, as rumors swirl that the Face of Apple needs a liver transplant, the Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking at how forthcoming, or not, Apple execs have been about Jobs’ health.

Given the degree to which Jobs is associated with Apple, and how much he has made himself associated with Apple, it’s probably worthy of further investigation.

Yet another neolib Cabinet-level pick by Obama

Obama continues to suck up to the gods of Wall Street by naming former Reagan/Bush I Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro back to that position; she was also acting SEC chair and lead the Commodities Futures Trading Commission during part of his administration, too.javascript:void(0)

Madoff is latest proof of bipartisan duopoly on financial immorality

Disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff? The alleged multibillion-dollar hedge fu nd shyster whose misdeeds had skated past Securities and Exchange Commission staff? Well, per SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, that started happening happening in the Clinton Administration’s SEC:

The Commission has learned that credible and specific allegations regarding Mr. Madoff’s financial wrongdoing, going back to at least 1999, were repeatedly brought to the attention of SEC staff, but were never recommended to the Commission for action.

That would have been when Arthur Levitt Jr., now sainted as a voice of foresight about the current crisis was SEC chairman, a fact — as well as the overall timesline — that the NYT somehow fails to mention when quoting him.

But, the present financial meltdown is all Republicans’ fault, right?

Companies must allow national healthcare votes

The Securities and Exchange Commission, reversing a previous stance, says that companies must allow shareholder votes on corporate support for national healthcare:

The SEC has told Boeing, General Motors, United Technologies, Wendy’s International and Xcel Energy over the last several months that they may not omit the health care proposal from their proxy materials.

The SEC responded that, in that past, on other issues, it has reversed its stance on shareholder votes due to changing societal stances and that national healthcare fits that.

Very interesting.

And, in an election year, it’s certainly a campaign wedge issue. Perhaps Barack Obama will become less cautious in his healthcare recommendations.

Beyond that, it not only can, but should be, a wedge issue for activists to push companies that have already passed shareholder resolutions of support for national healthcare to go beyond that to outright lobbying in favor of it.