SEC defends response to economic crisis

US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox, responding to heavy criticism, said in an interview published on Wednesday he takes pride in his response to the US financial crisis. 8220;What we have done in this current turmoil is stay calm, which has been our greatest contribution 8212; not being impulsive, not changing the rules willy-nilly, but going through a very professional and orderly process that takes into account unintended consequences,8221; Cox told The Washington Post. This caution 8220;has really been a signal achievement for the SEC,8221; said Cox.

The SEC, created after the 1929 stock market crash to police markets and restore investor confidence, has come under heavy criticism after the Wall Street meltdown and financial scandals exposed lapses in its oversight. Cox last week acknowledged that the SEC had failed to detect the alleged 50 billion fraud by Wall Street investment manager Bernard Madoff. Cox told The Washington Post the biggest mistake of his tenure was agreeing in September to an extraordinary three-week ban on short selling of financial company stocks.

Cox told the newspaper he had been under intense pressure from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to take this action and did so reluctantly.