Jon S. Corzine: “I, too, rise to strongly support the amendment the Senator from California is offering to roll back this Enron exemption…”

“I, too, rise to strongly support the amendment the Senator from California is offering to roll back this Enron exemption in the derivatives market. Being an old bond trader who operated in the derivatives markets for many years, the idea that we do not need basic registration of dealers, we do not need capital adequacy or capital rules, that there is no price transparency, whether in over-the-counter markets or on electronic exchanges, or there are not audit trails that are fundamental to any kind of regulation of financial transactions anywhere in the world, seems strange to me and offers an opportunity for those who want to take advantage of the lack of transparency and create patterns of manipulation to easily operate in these markets. It seems very strange that we pick a very narrow slice, the energy markets, to have such a gaping lack of transparency. I have heard people say there is no creativity in markets, that they will not develop, there will not be the liquidity in overseeings. That is just flatout not the fact.”