Richard Shelby: “over the course of the last 6 months, the longstanding, systemic fraudulent activities of numerous corporations have…”

“over the course of the last 6 months, the longstanding, systemic fraudulent activities of numerous corporations have been exposed in America and around the world. This fraud has cost American investors massive amounts, perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps more. Beyond the tangible losses, investor confidence in the integrity of our capital markets has also taken a tremendous hit, as the Presiding Officer knows. As we move forward to address the shortcomings in the oversight of our financial markets, we must carefully consider the true impact of what has occurred. Thousands of people have lost billions of dollars. Thousands of people have lost jobs. Millions of people have lost or are losing faith in our capital markets every day. The fact is, none of this is made any easier because of the manner in which this has happened. Americans don't feel better because the mugging took place in the boardroom rather than the back alley. In many ways, what has happened is even worse. Because of the sheer size and number of participants in our markets, the corporate scams have been much more efficient and much more effective than the average boiler room fraud. The bottom line is this: Real people are facing tremendous losses, and confidence in our system is eroding. I believe we must address this situation with concrete measures.…”