If you ran a chronically underfunded department that was part of an organization in urgent need of across-the-board belt-tightening, would you go out of your way to take on new responsibilities with your limited resources? I doubt it.But according to recent media reports, the Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to do something similar in the midst of the overall federal budget debate. Even as the SEC pleads for more resources from Congress to keep up with existing responsibilities and the mind-boggling array of new regulatory burdens dumped upon it by last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform act, the agency reportedly intends to expand its enforcement reach. The regulator will apparently pursue not only its signature cases against deliberate and reckless fraudsters, but also cases against people who make merely negligent mistakes
Read more: To Err Is Human . . . and Punishable by the SEC — CFO
