That is true and true.
The trouble I have with these recent proposals is this:
We already have laws, regulations and so on that would have prevented many of the worst excesses on Wall Street.
The regulators and Congress refuse to enforce the laws and regulations we have now. Their answer is to create a new bureaucracy, install Yet Another Bunch of Ivy Leaguers to run it, and spend more money... to produce no results.
We should have seen the CEO and CFO of most any investment bank in the US hauled into court on SarbOx charges by now, with convictions started to happen later this year to early next year. Not a single i-bank CEO/CFO has been charged.
The SEC should have not settled the auction rate securities cases for mere cash; the violations of the Securities Act were numerous and thick. Not a single criminal charge was brought.
The ratings agencies should have been investigated and someone within their ranks charged by now. Not a peep.
There should have been an investigation into the Fed by now. Nothing but heel-dragging.
Can you imagine how Jeff Skilling feels. He was a baby snake in the Den.
The SEC doesn't have the authority to bring criminal charges. They can refer the case to the locality, state or DOJ. You can see with SCOTUS and the Skilling case this year that the Federal govt will need a better law than "honest services" to pursue these cases in the future. I do think a certain number of these cases (I think they involved bribery amongst JPMorgan and some local officials to game the system) were brought at the local level.