Hoping to reduce temptation among administrators of public pensions, the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday tightened rules in the wake of a pay-to-play scandal involving California's largest pension funds.

Sometimes when things get really bad, people decide to do something totally unexpected and try to fix them.  It looks like a lot of highly-skilled former Wall Streeters have decided to try out public service, as Zachary Goldfarb's look ...

The Washington Post's Zachary Goldfarb reports that Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, denies that SEC timed its civil suit against Goldman Sachs to bolster the Obama administration/Democratic agenda. A couple things of interest here.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's civil suit against Goldman Sachs has seemed to change the agency's reputation overnight from toothless enabler of Wall Street to serious watchdog.

Just a couple of months ago, Washington was wondering whether Robert Khuzami and the new enforcement team at the Securities and Exchange Commission were going to make a dent in Wall Street's armor.   That question has been answered by the SEC's full-tilt charge at Goldman Sachs and now possibly other Wall Street firms as well.

Topic A in domestic politics is the Senate hashing out a financial regulatory reform bill. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission has been working within the existing rules to regain credibility as a Wall Street watchdog. Now, the SEC has made their boldest enforcement move of the Obama administration -- they've launched a civil suit against Goldman Sachs, reports the New York Times' Louise Story and Gretchen Morgenson.  The suit centers around whether Goldman Sachs sold a package of mortgage bonds to investors knowing that some of the mortgages underlying those bonds would default.

The success of the financial reform package the Obama administration is pushing  will depend on one thing: simplicity.  As NPR's Mara Liasson makes clear, passing financial reform passed is an Obama priority and the Democrats think they've got the votes.  But keeping the public behind this effort, and showing citizens that we're reining in the banks for real this time is more important than the political calculus.

The Washington Post's Zachary Goldfarb has a balanced piece on whether the Obama administration's Securities and Exchange Commission is doing anything to fight corporate crime after years in the wilderness.

Zachary Goldfarb's Washington Post analysis of the SEC's troubles under chairman Mary Schapiro does a lot to explain what the agency has been unable to do.  It outlines the opposition from Wall Street interests to many of Schapiro's initiatives, from greater access to board seats for disparate groups of ...

Jenny Anderson and Zachery Kouwe of the New York Times deliver this important overview of the SEC's enforcement team -- the group that is responsible for policing Wall Street, hedge funds, credit-default swaps, and corrupt investment peddlers like "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" ...