As Regulators Pressed Changes, Corzine Pushed Back, and Won

[groovedaddy]

Months before MF Global teetered on the brink, federal regulators were seeking to rein in the types of risky trades that contributed to the firm’s collapse. But they faced opposition from an influential opponent: Jon S. Corzine, the head of the then little-known brokerage firm.

As a former United States senator and a former governor of New Jersey, as well as the leader of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Mr. Corzine carried significant weight in the worlds of Washington and Wall Street. While other financial firms employed teams of lobbyists to fight the new regulation, MF Global’s chief executive in meetings over the last year personally pressed regulators to halt their plans.

The agency proposing the rule, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, relented. Wall Street, which has been working to curb many financial regulations, won another battle.

Yet with MF Global in bankruptcy and regulators scrambling to find $630 million in missing customer funds, Mr. Corzine’s effort may come back to haunt him.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/as-regulators-pressed-changes-corzine-pushed-back-and-won/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

[tcaudilllg]

1. Well on the one hand, I don't see how investing in government bonds could actually be bad...

the crisis over there is, after all, the product of an international right-wing conspiracy (or confluence of interests not unlike an MMO raid). A left-winger getting tied up in RW complicity, imagine that! I'm sure Corzine didn't intend to lose this money. Besides it's in bonds, right? Sounds like he just needs to play for time... or is this some kinda investment return scheme?