Hedge Fund Reader : Christopher Cox to be new chief of Securities Exchange Commission

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July 21, 2005

Christopher Cox to be new chief of Securities Exchange Commission

President Bush appointed Californian Congressman and fellow republican Christopher Cox to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently. Cox has a reputation of striking a balance between driving businesses as well as being tough on Corporate Crime. There are speculations that he is most likely to focus on enforcing current regulations rather than introducing newer rules. As such he is very unlikely to undo any work of predecessor William Donaldson. His line of work is expected to be quite conservative and truly in line with the overall republican approach. Players who support the proposed fund regulation by SEC, are happy with his appointment. At the same time over-regulation does seem to be a possibility as Steve Holzman, who manages the $1.2 billion equity hedge fund Vantis Capital in Los Angeles, puts it. On the contrary, people like Phil Goldstein, a shareholder activist who runs Bulldog Investors, opposes hedge funds regulation so much so that he actually sued the SEC, alleging it exceeded its regulatory power. Money.cnn.com reports:

“On the pro-business front, Cox authored legislation in 1992 to end double taxes on dividends, which helped lead to President Bush's reduction of the dividend tax in 2003. He also supported legislation that would make it tougher for investors to sue for securities fraud, and voted for big tax cuts for corporations and wealthy individuals.”

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July 21, 2005 in Regulation | Permalink