Today we have a preview of this weekend’s “Outrage of the Week” segment that will air during our Saturday show (11 AM to 1 PM on 1210 WPHT). If you’d like to hear the segment read on the air, tune in on Saturday, when you’ll hear the Outrage of the Week, as well as some great commentary from Phil Cannella, Joann Small and Bob Bumbera on The Crash Proof Retirement Show®

Revolving Door Revelations

Last week we talked about a report released by the Project on Government Oversight which exposed the issue of the Revolving Door, when government regulators leave their jobs to go work for the same private companies they once policed.
 
But were you aware that there is no Revolving Door?
 
At least that’s what former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.
 
Schapiro said that, in her case, there was no Revolving Door because she did not plan on returning to work for the U.S. government in the future. But when she made that statement, she failed to acknowledge that the Revolving Door goes both ways – and that her 28 years as one of the nation’s top regulators might allow her to provide some important insights to her new employer, Promontory Financial Group.
 
You heard that right, the former head of the SEC is now going to bat for a private sector financial company, and she claims that it’s not a case of the Revolving Door coming back around again.
 
Well you’ll have to excuse us if we take Schapiro’s assertion with a grain of salt.
 
Schapiro’s new employer has been described as a “Shadow Regulator” by American Banker Magazine, and makes its money consulting for firms who want to learn how to comply with financial regulations coming from the U.S. government.
 
Sure, we’d all like to believe that Promontory is doing right by the American people, but the truth is that we don’t know. It’s possible that the private sector firm is merely teaching the financial industry how to comply with ever-changing government regulations. It’s also possible that Promontory’s roster of former top regulators help it teach the financial industry how to navigate around the regulations they help put in place.
 
And now Promontory has the former SEC Chairman in its bullpen.
 
But don’t worry, Mary Schapiro wants us to trust her when she says, “In my case, there’s no revolving door… I won’t ever be going back to government.”
 
It is also worth noting that this month Mary Schapiro will stand to be elected to the Board of GE, one of the world’s most powerful corporations with a market capital of over 242 billion dollars.
 
Now that Schapiro has gone from the private sector to the government and back again, should we just take her at her word?