D.E. Shaw, the SEC, and Short-Selling

A Bloomberg News article assessing how Mary Schapiro is doing as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, reports, "After saying in April that she would consider curbs on short- selling, which lawmakers blame for pushing down stock prices, Schapiro has postponed any rules until next year. The decision followed push back from hedge funds, including Citadel Investment Group LLC, D.E. Shaw & Co. LP, and Renaissance Technologies Corp. They told the SEC in letters that there was little evidence that bearish traders caused the steep decline of share prices in 2008. The fund managers also said the SEC's plans would damage markets." D.E. Shaw's involvement here has gone beyond "letters." On September 21, 2009, the firm's Darcy Bradbury met with SEC commissioner Luis Aguilar about the short sale rules. On the same date, Ms. Bradbury met with SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes about the short selling rules. This is the same D.E. Shaw that paid Lawrence Summers, now chief of President Obama's National Economic Council, $5.2 million a year for a one-day-a-week job. Ms. Bradbury's federal campaign contributions in the 2008 cycle were a reported $89,492. There's nothing wrong with a person exercising her First Amendment right to donate money to politicians, engage in free speech, or petition the government, and hedge funds have every right to have a say in regulations that might affect their businesses. Even so, the involvement of D.E. Shaw in the short-selling regulation has generated none of the uproar that attended, say, the involvement of oil companies in Vice President Cheney's energy task force. The Bloomberg article mentions it almost as an aside; the New York Times had a short item about it that ran inside the business section back in October.