SEC chairmen, including current chair William Donaldson, have had a propensity to quote Justice Louis Brandeis in speeches. So allow me to throw one back at the Commission: “Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.”

Contrary to Brandeis’ counsel, however, if the SEC was graded on compliance with its own regulations, it would fail. And miserably.