Political Quotes

“I offer my amendment today in the spirit of improving the underlying bill in the area of investor protection with regard to the provisions of research provisions in title I. First, my amendment attempts to mitigate against potentially damaging conflicts of interest between the people who will profit from an emerging growth company's IPO and the people who write research about such IPOs. This amendment provides that if a broker or a dealer is underwriting an IPO and also providing research to the public about that IPO, those research reports need to be filed with the SEC and underwriters need to be held to stricter liability for their comments. Second, this amendment provides that if emerging growth companies are communicating orally or in writing with potential investors before or following an offering, they need to file those communications with the SEC. During the dot-com boom of the 2000s, it was uncovered that certain research analysts were recommending companies to the investing public because their firms had an economic interest in the firm's IPO, or wanting to get other businesses from the company. Meanwhile, those same analysts were telling their colleagues in internal emails that the company's IPOs were junk. Essentially, these analysts misled the investing public and didn't disclose their economic interest in hyping the company. Through a global settlement and related rules coming from the scandal, we cracked down on some of these conflicts of interest.…”