Steve Bradford makes a good point:
I wish the government would spend a little more resources on mob and terrorism cases and a little less on insider trading. I don't know about you, but I'm more worried about mobsters and terrorists. Even within the world of securities regulation, there are many better ways to spend those scarce enforcement dollars. It wasn't insider trading that caused the recent economic problems. It wasn't insider trading that caused Enron and WorldCom to collapse. And it won't be insider trading that causes the next big corporate failure.
Unfortunately, the SEC long ago discovered that Congress loves insider trading cases (as long as they're not brought against members of Congress). In the wake of blowing the Bernie Madoff case and taking a lot of hits for failing to prevent the 2008 crisis, the SEC is going to keep bringing insider trading cases so as to distract attention from its many failures.
Meanwhile, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is discovering -- as Rudy Giuliani did before him -- that insider trading cases are a great way for an ambitious NYC lawyer/politician to advance his career.
So even though it might make sense to deprioritize (if that's not a word, it should be) insider trading, it isn't going to happen.
