Talk:Brooksley Born

Article scope

Needs more -- more sources, biography, background, current role at Arnold & Porter, etc.

In 1997, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency that regulates options and futures trading, began exploring derivatives regulation. The commission, then led by a lawyer named Brooksley E. Born, invited comments about how best to oversee certain derivatives. Ms. Born was concerned that unfettered, opaque trading could “threaten our regulated markets or, indeed, our economy without any federal agency knowing about it,” she said in Congressional testimony. She called for greater disclosure of trades and reserves to cushion against losses. Ms. Born’s views incited fierce opposition from Mr. Greenspan and Robert E. Rubin, the Treasury secretary then. Treasury lawyers concluded that merely discussing new rules threatened the derivatives market. Mr. Greenspan warned that too many rules would damage Wall Street, prompting traders to take their business overseas. “Greenspan told Brooksley that she essentially didn’t know what she was doing and she’d cause a financial crisis,” said Michael Greenberger, who was a senior director at the commission. “Brooksley was this woman who was not playing tennis with these guys and not having lunch with these guys. There was a little bit of the feeling that this woman was not of Wall Street.” Ms. Born declined to comment. In early 1998, Mr. Rubin’s deputy, Lawrence H. Summers, called Ms. Born and chastised her for taking steps he said would lead to a financial crisis, according to Mr. Greenberger. On April 21, 1998, senior federal financial regulators convened in a wood-paneled conference room at the Treasury to discuss Ms. Born’s proposal. Mr. Rubin and Mr. Greenspan implored her to reconsider, according to both Mr. Greenberger and Mr. Levitt. Ms. Born pushed ahead. On June 5, 1998, Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Rubin and Mr. Levitt called on Congress to prevent Ms. Born from acting until more senior regulators developed their own recommendations. Mr. Levitt says he now regrets that decision. Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Rubin were “joined at the hip on this,” he said. “They were certainly very fiercely opposed to this and persuaded me that this would cause chaos.” Ms. Born soon gained a potent example. In the fall of 1998, the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management nearly collapsed, dragged down by disastrous bets on, among other things, derivatives. More than a dozen banks pooled $3.6 billion for a private rescue to prevent the fund from slipping into bankruptcy and endangering other firms. Despite that event, Congress froze the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s regulatory authority for six months. The following year, Ms. Born departed. In November 1999, senior regulators — including Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Rubin — recommended that Congress permanently strip the C.F.T.C. of regulatory authority over derivatives.[1]

Sources

The PBS Frontline special on Oct 20, 2009 was excellent. maybe we could find some of the articles from NY Times and other newspapers referred to in that program. they seem to have a lot of data. --Steve, Sm8900 (talk) 13:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Good idea. I am adding a link to a WaPo article to the external links §, and perhaps the information in that article can be incorporated into the text of this bio. The Market Wiki bio is also very informative and contains good references KeptSouth (talk) 13:41, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Birth date missing

There is no reference to when and where she was born--early childhood experience. Was she an army brat who moved all the time, or did she live in one town for her entire childhood--or something in between? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.101.103 (talk) 15:59, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Born predicted the financial collapse

Born testified before congress 17 times and clearly predicted the financial collapse and the ridiculous nature of financial derivatives. If she were a man, economic theories would already be named after her. If congress and the media were more open to the opinions of professionals who know what they are talking about AND happen to be women, perhaps we could have averted the whole toxic asset mess. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.141.245.193 (talk) 08:15, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

POV-neutral language?

"They iterated the traditional capitalist-class argument" -- ? I don't think that sounding like the local Marx Club president really advances the description of Born's attempts to blow the whistle. --Tbanderson (talk) 18:33, 30 March 2011 (UTC)