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Arthur Levitt Jr.


Self Description

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2008: '“As an overheated market needed a strong referee to rein in dangerously risky behavior, the commission too often remained on the sidelines,” Arthur Levitt, who served as chairman of the S.E.C. during the Clinton administration, told the Senate Banking Committee in October.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/business/25fraud.html

October 2008: 'But instead of admitting they can't capture the nuances of good child-rearing, they turn to biology. To explain how socioeconomic disparities affect test scores—apparently, Dubner and Levitt think parents can do little that matters—they trot out the old canard of IQ, the "strongly hereditary" trait they think drives educational and parenting success. Because their logistical regression models identify no practical strategies to help kids, they suggest that the problems must be in the genes. (The Bell Curve, Charles Murray's monumental tome of foolishness from 1994, made the same point: A kid is only as promising as his inherited IQ prophesizes. From the American Enterprise Institute, these days Murray claims 80 percent of Americans are biologically incapable of understanding college-level material.)'

http://www.slate.com/id/2201788/

January 2002: Former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr., who battled industry lobbyists with limited success to regulate audit firms more strictly, said Pitt's plan is a 'a good first step' and 'moves the ball a little bit.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64561-2002Jan17.html

January 2001: Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt had harsh words for corporations that practice deception in their accounting practices, as well as words of warning and encouragement to small investors, during his last official town meeting January 16.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articles.cfm?catid=1&articleid=302

November 1999: ``Too many corporate managers, auditors and analysts are participants in a game of nods and winks,'' said Levitt, the former head of the American Stock Exchange. ``Managing may be giving way to manipulation. Integrity may be losing out to illusion.''

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/11/19/MN33FIN.DTL

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Organization Jul 27, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Organization Jul 27, 2006
Subordinate of (past or present) President William ("Bill") Jefferson Clinton Person Jul 27, 2006
Advised by (past or present) Harvey J. Goldschmid Esq. Person Aug 31, 2006

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 24, 2008 Federal Cases of Stock Fraud Drop Sharply

QUOTE: At the S.E.C., agency investigations that led to Justice Department prosecutions for securities fraud dropped from 69 in 2000 to just 9 in 2007, a decline of 87 percent...

 New York Times
Oct 10, 2008 Womb Raider: Do future health problems begin during gestation?

QUOTE: Few people argue crack use is harmless, but the uniquely vengeful approach to incarcerating and punishing female crack addicts arose from the conviction that the drug harmed developing brains for good. In 2001, a team of Boston University pediatricians finally reviewed the evidence and concluded that, in fact, there was "no convincing evidence" for a crack baby syndrome—the whole thing was a made-up affair.

 Slate
Aug 08, 2006 Public Pension Plans Face Billions in Shortages

QUOTE: state and local governments owe their current and future retirees roughly $375 billion more than they have committed to their pension funds...“the people they are hurting are the taxpayers, who, whether they realize it or not, are going into a form of debt."

 New York Times
Mar 30, 2004 House Opposition To Expensing of Options Increases

QUOTE: ...a House bill that would block a new rule by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to count options as an expense has picked up key support from the Republican and Democratic leadership.

 Washington Post
Jul 13, 2002 Just a Few Rotten Apples? Better Audit Those Books

QUOTE: In 2001, 270 public companies restated the numbers in their financial statements...Those numbers prove that there are more than the "few bad apples" in the orchard that President Bush would have us believe...

 Washington Post
Jul 02, 2002 Everyone is Outraged

QUOTE: But Mr. Bush and Mr. Pitt say they are outraged about WorldCom....As the Web site dailyenron.com put it, last week "the foxes assured Americans that they are hot on the trail of those missing chickens."

 New York Times
Mar 18, 2002 Enough is Enough

QUOTE: Before Enronitis inflamed the public, gigantic white-collar swindles were rolling through the business world...hardly anyone ever went to prison.

 Fortune
Jan 18, 2002 SEC Seeks Reform of Auditor Controls: Battered Enron Fires Accounting Firm

QUOTE: [Harvey L.] Pitt said the heart of his plan is "a tough, no-nonsense" disciplinary body. The new oversight board would be funded by the private sector but kept separate from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), a lobbying and trade group that has long been responsible for professional discipline.

 Washington Post
Jan 18, 2002 Learning From the Enron Moment

QUOTE: We put limits on government because we don't want it to dominate our lives. But, in turn, we rely on government to check concentrations of private power.

 Washington Post
Jan 08, 2002 The Rise and Fall of Michael Saylor: Once Defiant, Microstrategy Chief Contritely Faces SEC (Part 3)

QUOTE: He told friends that his company had been the victim of "bean-counter sophistry" from its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and from the "jackals" in the press. But there was something Saylor feared – the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 Washington Post
Nov 23, 2001 From Sunbeam to Enron, Andersen's Reputation Suffers

QUOTE: In all three cases, Andersen auditors spotted bad accounting but were persuaded it was immaterial and therefore allowed it to go ahead.

 New York Times
Jan 31, 2001 Was There Anyone Arthur Levitt Didn't Blast in His Last Official Town Meeting?

QUOTE: Outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt had harsh words for corporations that practice deception in their accounting practices, as well as words of warning and encouragement to small investors...

 Knowledge@wharton
Nov 19, 1999 BEYOND THE LAW: As the SEC attempts to crack down on improper accounting, a recent federal court ruling threatens future investor lawsuits

QUOTE: The chairman's ``Numbers Game'' speech in September 1998 was the opening volley in the SEC's vaunted campaign against improper and sometimes fraudulent financial reporting in corporate America. And dozens of the most prominent companies in Silicon Valley were among the agency's targets. But Levitt and the SEC would soon discover just how difficult it is to crack down on the financial abuses thriving in Silicon Valley -- and just how powerful high-tech executives have become.

 San Francisco Chronicle