Just a few random thoughts jotted down after a whirlwind three days last week…
Are budgets really that bad? I’ve been assuming for nearly a year that budget increases and job openings went out of style with Bear Stearns. Imagine my surprise, then, at one gathering of about 15 chief compliance officers and two Justice Department officials—and as conversation went around the room, all 15 reported stable or slightly increased budgets, a smattering had job openings, and none said their CEOs or boards were giving them a hard time about the expense of compliance. Yes, it’s possible that most of the 15 were there because they’d had run-ins with the government before, and thus have stronger claims on company resources. But overall, concerns about budgets were quite tempered.
