Talk:Brooksley Born

Article scope

Needs more -- more sources, biography, background, current role at Arnold & Porter, etc.

In 1997, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency that regulates options and futures trading, began exploring derivatives regulation. The commission, then led by a lawyer named Brooksley E. Born, invited comments about how best to oversee certain derivatives.

Ms. Born was concerned that unfettered, opaque trading could “threaten our regulated markets or, indeed, our economy without any federal agency knowing about it,” she said in Congressional testimony. She called for greater disclosure of trades and reserves to cushion against losses.

Ms. Born’s views incited fierce opposition from Mr. Greenspan and Robert E. Rubin, the Treasury secretary then. Treasury lawyers concluded that merely discussing new rules threatened the derivatives market. Mr. Greenspan warned that too many rules would damage Wall Street, prompting traders to take their business overseas.

“Greenspan told Brooksley that she essentially didn’t know what she was doing and she’d cause a financial crisis,” said Michael Greenberger, who was a senior director at the commission. “Brooksley was this woman who was not playing tennis with these guys and not having lunch with these guys. There was a little bit of the feeling that this woman was not of Wall Street.”

Ms. Born declined to comment.

In early 1998, Mr. Rubin’s deputy, Lawrence H. Summers, called Ms. Born and chastised her for taking steps he said would lead to a financial crisis, according to Mr. Greenberger.

On April 21, 1998, senior federal financial regulators convened in a wood-paneled conference room at the Treasury to discuss Ms. Born’s proposal. Mr. Rubin and Mr. Greenspan implored her to reconsider, according to both Mr. Greenberger and Mr. Levitt.

Ms. Born pushed ahead. On June 5, 1998, Mr. Greenspan, Mr. Rubin and Mr. Levitt called on Congress to prevent Ms. Born from acting until more senior regulators developed their own recommendations. Mr. Levitt says he now regrets that decision. Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Rubin were “joined at the hip on this,” he said. “They were certainly very fiercely opposed to this and persuaded me that this would cause chaos.”

Ms. Born soon gained a potent example. In the fall of 1998, the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management nearly collapsed, dragged down by disastrous bets on, among other things, derivatives. More than a dozen banks pooled $3.6 billion for a private rescue to prevent the fund from slipping into bankruptcy and endangering other firms.

Despite that event, Congress froze the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s regulatory authority for six months. The following year, Ms. Born departed.

In November 1999, senior regulators — including Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Rubin — recommended that Congress permanently strip the C.F.T.C. of regulatory authority over derivatives.[1]

Sources

The PBS Frontline special on Oct 20, 2009 was excellent. maybe we could find some of the articles from NY Times and other newspapers referred to in that program. they seem to have a lot of data. --Steve, Sm8900 (talk) 13:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Good idea. I am adding a link to a WaPo article to the external links §, and perhaps the information in that article can be incorporated into the text of this bio. The Market Wiki bio is also very informative and contains good references KeptSouth (talk) 13:41, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Birth date missing

There is no reference to when and where she was born--early childhood experience. Was she an army brat who moved all the time, or did she live in one town for her entire childhood--or something in between? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.101.103 (talk) 15:59, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Born predicted the financial collapse

Born testified before congress 17 times and clearly predicted the financial collapse and the ridiculous nature of financial derivatives. If she were a man, economic theories would already be named after her. If congress and the media were more open to the opinions of professionals who know what they are talking about AND happen to be women, perhaps we could have averted the whole toxic asset mess. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.141.245.193 (talk) 08:15, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

Disagree. She could have been a saint - a *male* saint - and the imbeciles in Washington would have pushed her/him aside. Anything that didn't agree with their voodoo economics hogwash got crushed. Why aren't those people in prison ? 203.160.69.210 (talk) 01:06, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

POV-neutral language?

"They iterated the traditional capitalist-class argument" -- ? I don't think that sounding like the local Marx Club president really advances the description of Born's attempts to blow the whistle. --Tbanderson (talk) 18:33, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

bad links

The links to insidejob.com now redirect to insidejobs.com, some sort of career site. I don't know what the best way to fix ref links is - could someone take care of it? - Metalello ^talk 06:58, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

References #18 & 19 still go to that "insidejobs" career website. Can the author who added the links please edit the links or find the place where they should go? Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 02:23, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

Later that same 24 hour cycle ---

• This is the official Sony site for "Inside Job" that contains a trailer. The trailer features a chilling quote from Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe: "A Masterpiece. Scarier than anything Wes Craven and John Carpenter have ever made..." http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/

• I found a site called Films for Action, a .org that shows the "Inside Job" documentary. I read some of the About and FAQ stuff. The site says of themselves: "Films For Action is a community-powered learning library for people who want to change the world." They have instructions on how to screen films for activist events - fees and permission. Although this film is available for free viewing, they encourage viewers to purchase the film in order to support the film makers. They also appeal for donations to support site. It seems like a reliable site. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/inside-job-2010/

Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 07:21, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

POV

"She initially wanted to pursue a career in medicine. However, the guidance counseling service at Stanford opposed this, as it was their stated opinion that a woman who was interested in becoming a doctor, instead of the more suitable career of a nurse, was merely materialistic and had no sincere interest in healing.[7]" This point of view is not substantiated by the referenced citation. This statement makes it sound as though this was a policy of Stanford University when, in fact, it was only the opinion of an individual guidance counselor at the school at the time. Moreover, there is no mention that this was a policy applied to women interested in medicine. - can this be edited to be more accurate? Jemusser (talk) 05:32, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Can be and has been. Good catch. - Metalello ^talk 04:34, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Any Born writings?

Did Ms Born ever write about her experiences in the Bush administration, either articles or books? I see none in the references. Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 02:16, 6 August 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

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• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110904091531/http://www.arnoldandporterllp.net/professionals.cfm?action=view&id=557 to http://www.arnoldandporterllp.net/professionals.cfm?action=view&id=557
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