SEC: old broom

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s serial blunders, now including its failure to act on evidence it had about Bernard Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme for nearly a decade, justify a root-and-branch overhaul. New boss Mary Schapiro, a career regulator, may not find it easy to tear up the US oversight playbook and rewrite it - but that’s what’s needed. An encouraging start would be to merge the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the listed derivatives markets. ...