May 7, 2007
Dear SEC,
Please take note of the comments by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger (From Berkshire's Annual meeting) regarding the failure of Wall Street to deliver stocks:
Question: What can be done to make Wall Street deliver stocks they've sold but never delivered?
Charlie Munger: Those delays in delivering sometimes reflect tremendous slop in the clearance process. It is not good for a civilization to have huge slop. Sort of like how it isn't good to have a lot of slop in nuclear power plants.
In today's technological age there is no reason for "tremendous slop" in the clearance process and as Mr. Munger notes "it is not good for a civilization to have huge slop."
I find it interesting that he used a nuclear power plant in his analogy. Pretty serious stuff. When Charlie Munger analogizes the "slop" in the security clearance process to the "slop" at nuclear power plants regulators probably should take notice.
I hope the SEC will treat it's regulatory responsibilities seriously and clean up "the slop" Mr. Munger sees as "not good for civilization".
The SEC and the Industry should respect the nuclear analogy. Mr. Munger may be telling you something.
Respectfully,
T. Reilly