William Donaldson Announces Resignation as SEC Chairman

The New York Times reports that William Donaldson will resign as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission as the end of this month. This is another of a big, amazing story for a week that is not even half over. Donaldson replaced the embattled Harvey Pitt at the SEC, just as the SEC was becoming embroiled in the accounting and corporate scandals that were revealed to the public in 2003. Donaldson was also responsible for executing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which was suppose to clean up the corporate accounting behavior, and improve companies' financial statements and information disclosure.

It will be interesting to see who President Bush will chose to replace Donaldson at the SEC. Donaldson was chosen as someone who could clean up the accounting and financial services mess in the wake of the Enron, Arthur Anderson, Worldcom, Tyco and the various other scandals that were going on as the economy busted into its recession. Donaldson pretty much did what he had to do at the SEC at that time--especially when he had to fight off New York's Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, who was also making big inroads at cleaning up the mess on Wall Street. The economy doesn't seem to be in a good expansion, considering the American publics worry of high gas prices, a speculative housing bubble, and a weak job market. The Bush White House would like to say that the economy is getting better, causing Bush to possibly select an SEC chairman who would be especially more receptive to corporate and business interests over that of consumers and the public. And if Bush does select such a nominee, that individual may have an especially tough time getting confirmed by a Senate gripped in partisan politics and hatred. Bush will certainly try to shove his nominee down the Senate and the Democrats throat. The Democrats would never allow such a nominee to be confirmed, possibly using the filibuster in the SEC chairman confirmation hearings. It could make the John Bolton UN ambassador hearings like a children's tea party.

Cream and sugar anyone?