The day after Goldman Sachs bragged over huge profits from "high velocity" trading, the SEC announced the hiring of a Goldman Sachs staffer. The LA Times reported:
The Securities and Exchange Commission hired a 29-year-old former employee in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s business intelligence unit as the first chief operating officer in the agency's enforcement division, according to people familiar with the decision. The new operating chief, Adam Storch, had worked since 2004 in a Goldman unit that reviewed contracts and transactions for signs of fraud.Storch was hired by Goldman at the age of 24. It seems Harry Markopoulos would've been a better choice. What will the ex-Goldman staffer do as COO?
His new job is to make the SEC's enforcement division more efficient.
Efficient? How about more competent? Maybe, Storch could work on the best methods for dissolving regulatory capture or cutting undue political influence.
I bet he's there to fend off investigations of Goldman's black box profit generator. What better way to keep the Goldman-Golden Goose than Storching investigations from the inside?
Will what happens in Storch, stay in Storch?
(HT-Economic Policy Journal)