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Georgia Bard

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Alias Born 08/30/2000

Georgia Bard

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Wednesday, 11/22/2000 12:03:08 PM

Wednesday, November 22, 2000 12:03:08 PM

Post# of 484
The SEC Friend or Foe? Part 1

Numerous times the question has been raised if the SEC is a friend or foe to the small investor? In order to answer this mysterious question, the best way is to do a little historical due diligence on the governing agency of the stock market as an underlying basis. Also look at what has transpired in the last 7 years of record.

The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the regulating authority of the stock market plain and simple. All information that is placed before the eyes of the public by any issuer of a security or advisor, whether professional or amateur, comes under the SEC’s scrutiny. The SEC’s primary duty is to try to protect investors and maintain the integrity of the stock market.

Now please note that protecting the investment community is not about protecting existing shareholders in a company, but future investors. The SEC can not do much about turning back the clock for those that are already in a stock that the SEC takes action against and it is doubtful it is even a consideration. The mere enforcement of rules and regulations of the security acts of 1933, 1934, and 1940 plus other various regulations such as Reg S, M, & FD is the SEC’s primary function, task and scope.

All the Regulations and Acts can be found at this website, http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/sldtoc.html. Collectively these laws serve as the underlying basis for the SEC’s attempts to perform their difficult fundamental responsibilities. Basically this all comes down to companies publicly offering securities for investment dollars must tell the public the truth about A.) their businesses, B.) the securities they are selling, and C.) the risks involved in investing.

Plus these are guidelines for people who make a living selling and trading securities, such as the brokers, dealers, and exchanges, that they must follow so any dealings with investors are performed in a fair and honest association where the investors' interests come first.

The leader of the SEC is Arthur Levitt, the 25th Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He was first appointed by President Clinton in July 1993 and reappointed to a second five-year term in May 1998. On September 9, 1999, he became the longest serving Chairman of the Commission and his term does not expire till June 5, 2003 a year prior to the next election.

So who is the People’s Advocate exactly and his resume or qualifications for being appointed to head of the SEC? The best source for that information for his credentials would be his biography on the SEC website http://www.sec.gov/asec/biolevit.htm,

SEC Biography:

1952 Graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College
1952 - 54 the Air Force
???? - ?? 16 years on Wall Street. (What Capacity and Experience?)
1978 - 89 Chairman of the American Stock Exchange.
1989 - 93, Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation,
???? - ?? Owned Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. (When was this time frame)

The vagueness caused me, as with public companies, to perform a little deeper due diligence for verification purposes. Apparently, there had to be more for President Clinton to appoint Mr. Levitt to this prestigious position other that the brief last paragraph in the SEC biography.

A little research produced the April 28, 1993 White House Release made by President Clinton, http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/archives/whitehouse-papers/1993/Apr/President-names-Levitt-Chairman-of-the-SEC where a much better time line was documented. Now this basic timeline could be fine tuned as to his historical qualifications.

Biography: (This is a best effort and no assurance it is with flaws)

1952 Graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A from Williams College
1952 - 54 served in the United States Air Force
1954 – 59 Assistant Promotion Director for Time, Inc.
1959 – 62 Oppenheimer Industries as a Cattle trader worked his up to ExecVP and Director
1963 – 69 Retail broker, Carter, Berlind & Weill, later named (Cogan, Berlind, Weill & Levitt)
. . . . . . . . acquired Hayden Stone, and Shearson Hamill renamed (Shearson Hayden Stone, Inc.).
1969 - 78 Pres. and Dir. of Shearson Hayden Stone, Inc., now (Shearson Lehman Brothers)
1978 - 89 Chairman of the American Stock Exchange
. . . . . . 78 - 80 Chairman of the White House Small Business Conference Commission
. . . . . . 81 - 89 Founded and Chairman of the American Business Conference
. . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.americanbusinessconf.com/
. . . . . . 81 - 82 President's Task Force on the Private Sector Initiatives
. . . . . . 82 - 84 President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control
1989 - 93 Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (Finance)
. . . . . . . . http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dbs/html/dbs_nyc4.html#EDC
. . . . . . 90 - 93 Founded Levitt Media Company, (Roll Call, the Newspaper of Congress)
. . . . . . . . . 93 Sat on 10 corporate and philanthropic boards including
. . . . . . . . . . . . Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States,
. . . . . . . . . . . . New York Daily News,
. . . . . . . . . . . . Rockefeller Foundation
. . . . . . . . . . . . Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
1993 - Present Appointed Chairman of the SEC

This list of credentials definitely makes him influential and qualified without a doubt. Sort of reminds me of a modern day King Arthur Tale and the Knights of the Round Table being Commissioner Paul R. Carey, Commissioner Norman S. Johnson, Commissioner Isaac C. Hunt, Jr., and Commissioner Laura S. Unger. As with the Knights of the round table overseeing their armies, the commissioners oversee the various divisions. http://www.sec.gov/asec/wwwsec.htm

Now my curiosity wanted to know if the "Sword in the Stone" was this Roll Call Newspaper of Congress? Well, I merely typed in http://www.rollcall.com/ and there it was, "The Sword" (the pen) still covering the "Stone" (Capitol Hill). Since "Roll Call" is located in Washington D.C., the next obvious step was a search of The Washington Post, which brought up this article http://washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/specialsales/pfc2000/bio_glassman.html.

According to this Washington Post article, "For 5 years, Mr. Glassman was owner, in partnership with Arthur Levitt, of Roll Call, a twice-weekly newspaper that covers the U.S. Congress. He and Mr. Levitt sold the paper in 1993 to The Economist of London."

Now according to the White House press release, "In 1990, he left the exchange to found Levitt Media Company, which publishes Roll Call, the Newspaper of Congress" that would be 3 years.

Now my curiosity was really perked up like a bird dog. So another search on the key words "Roll Call is" produced a verification to the accurate time of ownership, in a November 6, 1994 C-SPAN interview with Bill Thomas, the author of Club Fed: Power, Money, Sex and Violence on Capitol Hill. http://www.booknotes.org/transcripts/50100.htm

Mr. Thomas states, "I started there when Jim Glassman and I came to Roll Call after Arthur Levitt bought it in 1986, I think, or 87 and stayed with Roll Call until about 1990, when I got a contract to write an earlier book."

Based on Glassman’s and Thomas’ quotes, it was 5 years, but the interview with Thomas disclosed something very unique. In 1987, Arthur Levitt bought Roll Call for $500,000.00 and sold it in 1993 for $15,000,000.00! Now I wish I had owned stock in that little enterprise. Another words in 6 years (1987-1993), that Mr. Levitt owned the paper, its worth went up 30 times the initial purchase price. That’s an average of a 5 bagger every year on his/their initial investment. That is quite impressive to say the least.

Also, according to Bill Thomas from the C-Span interview in 1994, "Roll Call is a -- how can I put this? Roll Call is a newspaper. It's a little like the Wall Street Journal. It covers goings-on on Capitol Hill. It comes out a couple of times a week. It combines a little bit of nuts-and-bolts Hill reporting with reporting on Hill sociology. It's a little bit like the Hollywood Reporter in some sense. It keeps track of the industry and it reports on personalities in the news on Capitol Hill and it has fun with politics."

Mr. Thomas further states the paper’s worth came from advertising, "A lot of the advertising in Roll Call, and a lot of advertising in newspapers that cover Capitol Hill, is advertising meant to influence Congress, corporations speaking to legislators and speaking to lawmakers, a lot of corporate vanity ads -- ads intended to influence opinion makers, lawmakers in one way or another. You find a lot of this sort of thing in National Journal, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, and there's a new publication on Capitol Hill called The Hill. Now you see a lot of it in there."

Talk about pedigree resumes, Mr. Levitt definitely has the historical background to hold the position as Chairman of the SEC. He has experience and cognizant of operating and growing a small media business, Wall Street, News Media, the Political Arena, and Financing. Mr. Levitt’s diversification proves that top quality people do exist in a world/market fraught with mediocrity, deception, side stepping and flat out laziness. His total diversification has been very well demonstrated and documented in his term as head of the commission.

Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, 1966 said it best, "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Hey, just my opinion and I could be wrong!

To be continued.

Gary Swancey


:=) Gary Swancey

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