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March 05, 2011

Rancho Bernardo, California.

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I spend a lot of time here in this suburb of San Diego. In one sense, it's a bit like my beloved alma mater across the country: a small serious community of reasonable men and women who work hard at producing young adults who may some day take their places as high-functioning members of the ultra-bourgeoisie. Just way less fun, free-thinking and diverse. Suburban San Diego. While "well-educated" and white collar, it's stiff, reactionary and semi-literate.

But it's a great place to rest--and think. I do get the people. I do like them. However, unlike the more energetic and erudite out-of-state dream builders, writers, artists, and unabashed Alphas who move further north to Los Angeles--LA transplants tend to hail from the American Northeast--newcomers to Southern California are from safe no-nonsense enclaves of the Midwest and South.

It's like, well, Pittsburgh or Indianapolis or any number of fine cities in "flyover" land where the message is stark but honest and clear: "Succeed--but do so on our terms. Don't go too far too fast on your own. Don't make us feel uncomfortable about ourselves." As one friend notes, both San Diego and Orange counties are, at best, "Ohio with Water". At worst, Death with a View.

It's getting better, though. Slowly, in small waves, both San Diego and next-door Orange are seeing increasing diversity in peoples, and in thought. It can't be stopped.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Corporate Counsel: What kind of SEC?

See Broc Romanek's piece yesterday, "Should the SEC Be Reorganized? If So, How?" Excerpt:

With a government shutdown averted--at least for two weeks--SEC Staffers still have plenty to be concerned about. One of the Dodd-Frank studies--required by Section 967 of the Act--is being prepared by an independent consultant, the Boston Consulting Group.

Expected to be published soon, the study's stated purpose is to "examine the internal operations, structure, funding, and the need for comprehensive reform of the SEC, as well as the SEC's relationship with and the reliance on self-regulatory organizations and other entities relevant to the regulation of securities and the protection of securities investors that are under the SEC's oversight."

Given that this study was commissioned at a time when it was expected that the SEC would receive more funds and would be in full hiring mode--and now the opposite is true--it will be interesting to see how the study handles this dramatic change in the Congressional-regulatory environment.


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Harvey (1950): "Well, what did you have in mind?"

Posted by JD Hull at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)