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为什么是一个市场,从t共和党国会议员he Bible Belt leading what some call the biggest government attack on Wall Street since the Milken era?

    为什么是一个市场,从t共和党国会议员he Bible Belt leading what some call the biggest government attack on Wall Street since the Milken era?

    By Justin Schack
    February 2002
    亚博赞助欧冠机构投资者杂志

    Part of appreciating the creation that surrounds us is understanding the role of our solar system," says Representative Richard Baker.

    He's bouncing along in a white Mazda sedan on a back road through the piney woods of Livingston, Louisiana, waxing philosophical. It's the middle of an August afternoon, the air thick as gumbo, and Wall Street's congressional overseer - home for summer recess - is speeding past tin-roofed shacks and grazing cattle. We're off to check on a massive piece of pork that Baker delivered to his downstate district three years ago: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory.

    An amateur astronomer, Baker is as happy talking about black holes and gravitational waves as he is about high finance and politics. And the 2.5-mile sprawl of lasers, vacuum tubes and mirrors is something to behold. One of just two such facilities in the world, it aims to detect waves that scientists believe were emitted during the early expansion of the universe. Unimpressed, shotgun-toting locals have used the observatory's massive exterior for target practice, prompting the scientists inside to line the walls with steel plates.

    Representative Baker likes to think big. But many of his ideas have received a similarly disrespectful response. A career politician who came to Congress in 1987, Baker endured several years as a back bencher before becoming chairman of the old House Banking Committee's subcommittee on capital markets when Republicans won the House in 1994. Since then he has marked himself as a free-market advocate with a fear of systemic failures, a crusading iconoclast with an appetite for headlines and a willingness to take on some of Washington's sacred cows.

    特别是,面包师顽固地打动了改革政府赞助的抵押贷款贷款人Fannie Mae和Freddie Mac,涉及他们的气球资产负债表亚博篮球怎么下串,如果他们有史以来,他们的气球资产负债表可能需要纳税人资助的救助。贝克赞助的一项清扫改革法案,尽管联邦储备委员会亚博篮球怎么下串主席Alan Greenspan,这是一个股份贝克对系统风险的担忧的朋友。但努力确实产生了一些结果,包括执行规则,要求贷方提高资本储备。

    Now Baker is pointing an accusatory finger at Wall Street - in particular, at its securities analysts - charging in a series of highly publicized hearings that the analysts have touted lousy companies to enrich themselves and their firms. The war against terrorism pushed the issue to the back burner following September 11, but Baker is renewing the fight. His goal: to pressure regulators and industry executives to implement their own reform plan or face federal legislation. He has been emboldened by the need for public confidence in the markets amid uncertainty stemming from the terrorist attacks and the spectacular collapse of Houston energy trader Enron Corp., to which analysts continued to give high marks on the eve of its record $63 billion bankruptcy filing in December.

    “安然的物质带来了非常敏锐的,清晰的重点,”贝克说。“如果国会成员有任何政治犹豫不决,不要支持我们对分析师改革的方向,所以与安然的困难使他们不得不采取行动。我看到一个带来一些改变的机会窗口。”

    Baker is tapping a rich vein of investor anger. Since riding America's infatuation with the stock market to fame and fortune during the late 1990s, analysts have come to symbolize everything that went wrong with the market. Investors gripe that as Wall Street grew ever more reliant on fees from underwriting securities and arranging mergers for corporate clients, analysts ceased being independent arbiters of value and instead became little more than corporate cheerleaders. They also grouse about analysts who own shares of the companies they cover - in some cases, shares obtained at huge discounts before the companies went public and the analysts issued glowing reports (Institutional Investor, April 2001).

    "I think the castigation of the analysts going on right now is probably a little overdone," says legendary Windsor Fund manager John Neff, now retired. "But [reform is] long overdue."

    强大的华尔街高管谈到贝克的非常令人震惊是他挥霍的权力的证词,特别是在分析师和安然丑闻之后,通过立法来公布,这将使他们的生命悲惨。主任一家主要证券公司的研究总监:“我们当然必须认真对待他,因为他在他身边有舆论,他愿意按下这个问题。他想要结果。”

    证券交易委员会和纽约州律师将军办事处还在调查可疑的研究实践,包括分析师股权和赔偿,几个月。美国证券交易委员会致力于针对某些分析师的执法行动向前迈进,在推荐将其销售给投资者时销售股票。该机构还在探讨一系列华尔街公司如何分配热门IPO的股票。在与SEC的解决方案中,瑞士信贷第一波士顿上个月同意支付1亿美元并改造其IPO分配政策。一系列诉讼是代表个人投资者提出的,声称突出的华尔街分析师为自己或其公司的利益而吹捧糟糕的股票,导致小型投资者造成巨大的损失。至少一个 - 个人对Merrill Lynch&Co的索赔和前互联网分析师Henry Blodget - 由公司定居。

    据美国人口普查局认为,这是一个良好的赌注,其中很少有人在联盟中最贫穷,最聪明的国家之一,这是联盟中最贫穷,最不识字的国家之一。贝克区的中位数家庭收入为26,000美元,比全国中位数低13%。五分之一的面包师的成员生活在贫困中。

    Why then is Baker, a professed supporter of free markets, a conservative Republican who consistently earns nearly perfect voting-record scores from such right-wing groups as the American Conservative Union, the National Rifle Association and the Christian Coalition of America, playing Torquemada in Congress's inquisition of Wall Street? "I have a responsibility as chairman of the capital markets subcommittee to see to it that we rebuild confidence in our markets," says Baker. "It serves no one's interests if the average investor cannot trust the numbers they receive from corporations or the proclamations and projections of analysts."

    然而,华尔街不开心。“我们被告知,他将有一个听证会,发出报告并继续别的东西,”一位主要证券公司的政府关系负责人表示。“现在,这些节目的试验将继续几个月。我们是他和小组委员会 - 和全委员会的原因,我们将在填充天开始第一次对华尔街的策划攻击。”

    Says another Street lobbyist: "This is a pivotal moment for Baker. He's already alienated Fannie and Freddie. If he continues to attack the financial services industry, which has contributed quite a bit to his cause, then who's next? And what's the difference between him and a Democratic chairman?"

    "I just believe, having watched him operate and having spoken to him and worked with him, that he cares about doing what's right," says former SEC chairman and lifelong Democrat Arthur Levitt Jr., who during his tenure often clashed with Baker on accounting issues. "Even though he's supportive of the free market, he also has a populist streak."

    贝克孜孜不倦地争夺他的家庭人群。与大多数立法者不同,他每周末都在派出时才能在会议次数。游说者说,他从未去过他们在郁郁葱葱的度假胜地赞助“讨论问题”。即使是那些为华尔街工作的人,谁是贝克的武警,作为一个松散的大炮的东西赞美他的智力和独立。“与他的许多同龄人相比,这个家伙就像一个合唱团一样,”一个人说。

    Born in New OrleansN in 1948, Richard Hugh Baker Jr. inherited his fervor for upright conduct and fair play - not to mention his love of science - from his father, a geologist who became a Methodist preacher after serving as a naval aviator in World War II. Indeed, as a young man Baker thought about following his father into the Methodist clergy. But the younger Baker had a tougher time turning the other cheek: "I like to fight back too much," he says.

    贝克在七岁时搬到了巴吞鲁日,当他的父亲被转移到那里的教会,并继续在路易斯安那州立大学获得政治学中的巴巴。在毕业的一年内,他娶了他的克莱木匠,开始自己的房地产经纪人,正在等待他两个孩子的第一个孩子的诞生。

    Both Kay's mother and paternal grandfather were political junkies. "They were real political activists, but in the very basic sense," Baker recalls. "You know, have meetings at your house where about 75 people would come over for those awful little sandwiches and talk about issues and campaigns." The 23-year-old Baker caught the eye of a faction of local Democrats who were looking for an up-and-comer to run in 1971 for a newly created state legislature seat in Baton Rouge. He polled high enough in a wide-open field of candidates to make the runoff, where he handily beat a local chiropractor.

    从一开始,Baker的保守派,专业市场的信仰已经被一个原型的路易斯安那人民主义连胜。贝克的区包括着名的Huey(王鱼)的出生地。作为州长,美国参议员和总统候选人在大萧条中,长期以来,华尔街和企业兴趣的公开敌人,主张从富人到贫穷的财富的系统转移,这将保证每个家庭净值至少为5,000美元。

    Baker's no Kingfish, but a bit of Long's legacy lives on in every Louisiana politician. "It certainly doesn't hurt him with his constituents to be fighting for Everyman against the big Wall Street fat cats," says one longtime Louisiana politico.

    作为20世纪70年代和80年代初期的民主国家立法者,贝克赢得了反对腐败和惠顾的十字军的声誉。他支持一系列规范的账单,标准化了金钱被淘汰的公路和其他运输项目的过程。代表一个庞大的联合区域,他强烈支持有组织劳动的权利,在1982年投票反对正式法律。

    But just three years later, Baker switched parties at the urging of Republican officials who saw him as their best hope to retain the seat of W. Henson Moore, who was leaving the House of Representatives to run for the Senate. Baker won the seat by a slim margin. There was more than political expediency involved in his decision to switch parties. He was one of several conservative Louisiana Democrats who defected after clashing mightily over the management of the state budget with then-governor Edwin Edwards (who was convicted in May 2000 of fixing the state's riverboat casino licensing system to enrich himself and others but remains free on appeal). At the same time, the national GOP had begun a drive to convert conservative Democrats - both voters and officeholders - across the country. "Edwin Edwards was pushing me, and Ronald Reagan was asking me," says Baker. "The combination of those two forces was undeniable."

    Baker came to Capitol Hill in 1987 with a strong interest in housing policy - Louisiana's public housing projects are among the worst-run in the nation. But as a minority freshman he had no chance at a spot on the influential committee overseeing the issue. Among the assignments he settled for was a seat on the House Banking Committee. In 1994 Baker became chairman of the committee's subcommittee on capital markets, where he championed a far more radical reform of the Glass-Steagall Act (which separated banking, securities and insurance activities) than the version that eventually passed in 2000. He also began his quixotic quest to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both issues were extremely popular with banks and insurance companies, two groups that would play a large role in funding Baker's reelection campaigns.

    国会议员在对抵押贷款贷款人的斗争中采取了大量的肿块,政府赞助的企业长期以来一直是政治第三根轨道,因为他们在国会大厦的支持者的支持者网络。亚博篮球怎么下串2000年2月,随着格林斯潘和劳务秘书长的支持,贝克赞助了一项将削弱联邦政府与GSE之间的联系,使其在美联储下的严格监管之间削弱联系。亚博篮球怎么下串所有三人都担心,GSES对政府的联系允许他们向债务山发出非常有利的条款 - 如果企业失败,纳税人可能存在责任。但是,GSE使用他们的政治肌肉来保护他们的特殊地位,贝克的比尔在2000年秋天死亡。

    Still, Baker was able to press the agency that regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to impose in July a long-anticipated rule that will require them to boost capital reserves; this eases some of Baker's concerns about the systemic risk posed by their huge debt loads. Baker has continued to push for GSE reform in subtler fashion, floating the idea of creating additional GSEs to compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

    Baker对财务队的影响力较高几乎成本于1998年的座位。导师Marjorie Mckeithen,前总督的孙女,将贝克作为华尔街的工具安装了一个强大的竞选活动。其中一个电视广告麦克斯泰伦在比赛期间跑了一张贝克的头部漂浮在曼哈顿地平线上方的贝克的头部,以“纽约,纽约”的曲调,带着标签线,“Richard Baker:最好的国会议员有。”该活动超薄了面包师的纪录,但它与该区的民粹主义选民共鸣。面包师以较少3000票或1.4%的投票击败麦克基。选举后,据前媒体害羞的贝克聘请了他的第一张新闻秘书,以确保他在国会的活动的全部范围将更好地宣传回家。去年11月经过更轻微的竞争竞争,贝克成为新房金融服务委员会的资本市场董事长小组委员会,负责监督证券业务。

    Baker Clearly didn't expect the research issue to catch fire the way it has. Reports of his first hearing in June were carried not only by financial media such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC and CNNfn but found their way onto doorsteps in communities across the nation, picked up by local papers like The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan and The Sun-Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi. "Frankly, I'm surprised about the level of interest given to this," admits Baker.

    他说,如果街道不采取适当的措施,他将仅作为最后一个手段赞助改革研究的立法。但是,其他立法者正在推动行动。纽约民主党人的代表John Lafalce公开表示,他认为,即新的SEC规则,立法是确保该行业清理其行为的唯一途径。即使是共和党人也被初步证券交易所探讨的结果激怒了分析师活动。然后,Acting Sec主席Laura Unger于7月份在Baker的第二次听证会上作证,她的机构接受调查的分析师的近30%已获得他们所涵盖的公司预先份额,并且在继续推荐股票的同时占据股票的份额。虽然肯定地评级,但甚至卖掉了公司的股票。“我一开始就说,我不想就此问题立法,”特拉华共和国迈克尔城堡代表说。“但我只是不确定了。”

    Whether it gets to that point depends in large part on Wall Street - and on its many friends inside the Capital Beltway. On June 12, just two days before Baker's first hearing, the Securities Industry Association, Wall Street's main trade group, released a set of "best practices" for research that attempt to mitigate the various conflicts analysts face. Among the recommendations, which carry a disclaimer that in essence suggests that member firms are free to ignore them without fearing enforcement action: Research should not report to investment banking; ratings should be transparent and easily understandable; analyst pay shouldn't be linked to deals; companies should not be allowed to vet research before it is published.

    贝克说,太少了,太晚了。“时间有点有问题,这些建议基本上是公开的普遍存在市场实践,”他指出。

    SIA不同地看到了不同的事情。“我发出的是我们最佳实践的特征,”Sia主席Marc Lackritz说。“我们有15家非常大的投资银行公司在这里同意。那个和本身就是不寻常的。我们的公司非常具竞争力。他们在一天中互相同意。”

    Since Baker's hearings began several firms have moved to reduce conflicts. Merrill Lynch took the lead by barring its analysts from owning shares of the companies they cover. Retail brokerage Edward D. Jones and high-tech investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston soon followed suit. Morgan Stanley did the same in December. In August Goldman, Sachs & Co. stopped short of barring analysts from owning the stocks they track but mandated fuller disclosure of such positions.

    虽然贝克考虑了这些积极的步骤,但他仍然不满意。“我宁愿没有看到一系列新的标准以零碎的方式发展,”他说。“为每个人坐下来谈谈正确的方法是更有意义的。”

    许多证券公司高管认为,贝克是在寻求责任市场崩溃时责备的分析师。他们质疑国会是否是解决已经严重受监管私人市场问题的正确场所。“我们宁愿让SEC和现在存在的监管机构,”花旗集团证券股的全球研究负责人John Hoffmann表示。“我们肯定受到很多批评的影响,其中一些是合理的。但总的来说,我们已经做了一个合理的工作,我们听到了很多虐待,我们听到听证会我们可以自信地说我们的家伙做。“

    贝克可能对行业难以应对他在1998年的近乎损失。他否认了这一点,而其他人则怀疑这就是激励他的原因。关闭助攻争辩说,基于2000年人口普查的等待重新发行将使路易斯安那州的第六区更加坚定。另一方面,猜测仍然存在,贝克可能在2003年为州长竞选,在这种情况下,对国家民粹主义选民的呼吁比扭曲金融服务业更重要。

    在9月11日临时暂时暂时分开了问题,贝克一直在与SIA谈判的一系列改革,这些改革将超越本集团的最佳做法建议。最近,他再次调整了热量,与哈维董事长哈维·帕特一起经纪人妥协。11月份PITT在纽约举行了证券公司首席执行官的纽约;他们同意组建一组研究高管,1月下旬最终确定了本月与立法者预期的联合公告的改革提案。理想情况下,这些建议将被纳入来自国家证券经销商协会的一项综合规则提案,该公司拥有大多数华尔街公司的监管机构,审批批准。

    There are a number of potential remedies that would, to varying degrees, better protect investors from conflicts of interest. But many argue that the only effective fix would be to erect a permanent regulatory wall between research and investment banking. Former SEC chairman Levitt, among others, has advocated this approach. "As a purist, I think you have to take away banking influence. And the only way to do it is to take away the money," says Ronald Glantz, who retired in 2000 after 32 years of analyzing automobile stocks for such firms as Mitchell, Hutchins & Co., PaineWebber, Smith Barney and hedge fund Tiger Management. Glantz testified at Baker's July 31 hearing. "When I ran the research department at PaineWebber, the bankers' attitude was, 'We pay part of your budget, so when we have an assignment, you're going to help us,'" he says. "In those days they contributed about 15 percent of my budget. Now I'd say the figure across Wall Street is closer to 80 percent."

    但甚至Levitt承认这里涉及的困难:“理想是从投资银行业务的研究总分离。无论是墙街公司的实用性,完全是另一个问题。”添加了一个卖方研究主任,“你不能假装五月的日子[1975年5月的经纪委员会的联想,我们从未发生过,我们只能支付佣金美元的分析师。”

    皮特表示,他并不一定介意分析师拥有他们覆盖的股票,而是对他们在其部门的IPO股权上赚钱的物品。贝克似乎同意:“我不一定认为,分析师持有他发出建议的股票是不合适的。但是在降级之前,你不应该出售。”

    虽然公司说他们的政策防止离合器e, the SEC's examination of actual practices "tends to color that a little differently," says Baker. "In fact, Ms. Unger came in and said many of the firms' requirements, the codes of conduct in pretty, bound volumes, apparently are just sitting on the shelf. There's no compliance function. And that's what I see our role as."

    贝克或华尔街的任何监管机构不太可能授权银行收入不再支付研究账单或者分析师可能不再拥有他们所涵盖的股票。但它是一个很好的赌注,即美国人队将最终将加强其关于披露冲突的规则。到目前为止,贝克和该行业之间的讨论是为了使这些披露的清晰突出,而不是在研究报告结束时埋在模糊的法律样板中。贝克还希望分析师泄露他们所拥有的任何职位的大小。“他们说分析师可能”有兴趣“,”他说。“好吧,这是什么意思?是100美元或100,000美元或100万美元?有很大的差异。”

    最后,这将是困难的华尔街to argue against sunshine. Improved disclosure should go a long way toward better informing investors about what, besides company fundamentals, may be determining analyst ratings.

    “更加突出的披露会显然有利于所有投资者,”贝克说。“可能没有必要超出这一点。我不是在倡导国会的直接监管,也不是秒。”他不会提供待定改革提案的详细信息,但建议将披露披露,同时授权不符合较早的SIA准则。“这将是重建在市场信心的最初第一步。但我们将观看行业的回应方式。该委员会不会消失,也不是秒。至少,至少有一年 -对实践的一年审查,如果我们发现它没有工作,我们将采取立法行动。“

    面包师还听取了作为采用国际会计准则的议题的证词,并且他正在研究国家保险法规的莫拉斯是否应该融入统一的联邦宪章。Pitt在去年8月的比赛中确认后的一天,贝克与新的SEC主席共度了两个小时,讨论了改革1933年和1934年的证券行为的可能性,以更新过时的规定,消除不必要的政府参与市场。

    现在不要看,但贝克似乎在Fannie Mae和Freddie Mac的另一个倾斜度被重新组合。他在上个月末与布什政府官员举行会议 - 其中一位前贝克员工,现在正在努力为财政部生产的GSE政策 - 今年晚些时候讨论潜在的立法或行政行动。

    Wall Street had better get used to this ragin' Cajun. He's not through making waves.