Fact File: Annual Budget Of The U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the Pennsylvania city of Harrisburg, the state’s beleaguered capital, with securities fraud on Monday for allegedly releasing misleading public statements and financial information. Harrisburg, which is under state receivership after its finances became mired by a scheme to upgrade a trash incinerator, agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the findings, the SEC said.

I was curious to take a look at the details behind the following story: The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced preliminary unaudited results indicating that the Reserve Banks provided for payments of approximately $46.1 billion of their estimated 2009 net income of $52.1 billion to the U.S. Treasury. This represents a $14.4 billion increase over the 2008 results.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to “protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.” It is odd, then, that the regulatory body decided last week to preserve one of the most egregious loopholes in the entire financial system.

By Felix Salmon: On Tuesday March 6, Apple (AAPL) shares opened at $523.66. On Thursday March 15 — eight trading days later — they opened at $599.61. Which means that over the course of those eight trading days, the market capitalization of Apple increased by more than 70 billion dollars.

When the Deutsche Börse (the parent company of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange) made a bid to buy the NYSE Euronext in February, it was surprising, but not that newsworthy. A European company overseeing a US stock exchange? It’s already been done.

Trefis submits: NYSE Euronext (NYX)acquired American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in 2008 to expand its equities, options and exchange traded funds (ETFs) trading business. Recently NYSE announced its plans to sell the majority of its stake in the Amex stock options market to seven companies which includes top banks, trading houses and brokerages.

This is my third (and maybe final) post in the series on the economic effects of our budget deficit and debt.  First I talked about the risk of inflation due to the deficit, then about the potential of a debt crisis in America.  In this blog I'll explain how I expect our problem to be resolved: higher taxes, leading to slower economic growth.