At its head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: “I am the Mouth of Sauron.”
“Is there any one in this rout with authority to treat with me?” he asked. “Or indeed with wit to understand me? Not thou at least!” he mocked, turning to Aragorn with scorn. “It needs more to make a king than a piece of elvish glass, or a rabble such as this. Why, any brigand of the hills can show as good a following!”
Aragorn said naught in answer, but he took the other’s eye and held it, and for a moment they strove thus; but soon, though Aragorn did not stir nor move hand to weapon, the other quailed and gave back as if menaced with a blow. “I am a herald and ambassador, and may not be assailed!” he cried.
“Where such laws hold,” said Gandalf, “it is also the custom for ambassadors to use less insolence.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I cannot fault SEC chair Mary L. Schapiro‘s efforts to clean house and restore credibility to her scarred agency. She’s a much needed breath of fresh air within the beltway. I have to wonder however whether she can bring the needed teeth to the issue of HFTHigh Frequency Trading regulation. As far back as October last year, the WSJ reported in some depth, the SEC announcement that it has the intention to seek “baseline data” about High Frequency Traders and their activities.
I’m skeptical about the possibility of her agencies’ success chiefly because of who the the opposing team are. The usual suspects are on the benches and ready to take the field of course. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and to a lesser extent, Bank of America. All have proprietary trading operations that return substantial margins to their balance sheets. Equally, the exchanges themselves are arrayed in vehement and self-serving opposition to the SEC restricting HFT conditions. More on that issue later.
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