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We've climbed back from that dark hole in March and while things aren't necessarily better, they sure as hell aren't getting exponentially worse.  Been some time since we had those thousand-point intra-day swings that raised us, drained us, and left us exhausted. You can only sit on a roller coaster for so long before the thrill wears thin and you need to lean over and puke.  That was one hell of a ride.  Enough, though.  Happy to be amidst some two and three figure daily ups and downs.  Perhaps we all can ride on the merry-go-round for the summer?  

I liked a quote from SEC Chair Schapiro the other day, in which she seemed to push back against suggestions that her organization add to its already overly ambitious 2009 agenda.  She said that there is only so much that the SEC can do this year, and wasn't likely to try and tackle too much more beyond what's already on the plate.  About time our high-profile regulators put limits on their bureaucracies and tried to deliver some results rather than pile up more promises. As the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, so often says, dogs need "rules, boundaries, and limitations."  I think that's good advice for regulators too.

We just had a rash of affinity fraud cases.  Ethnic groups. Church groups. And so on. Just goes to show you that those who look most like you and who talk most like you are the ones you have to fear most. In the immortal words of Pogo: We have met the enemy and he is us.

A number of old-fashioned insider trading cases just got announced.  Most insider traders seem to think that they won't get caught but, geez, any of these folks read a newspaper or watch television? Don't they know that there are computers these days and all those incredibly well-timed 11th hour buys and sells are going to pop up on some regulator's radar screen? Nice to see that there are some constants still on Wall Street.  Stupidity is holding its own. Can you spell d-i-s-g-o-r-g-e-m-e-n-t and i-n-c-a-r-c-e-r-a-t-i-o-n?

Then there is the brewing battle royal between the financial planning folks and the all-devouring self-regulatory-organization FINRA.  Apparently, not having enough to do, FINRA is jockeying to become the financial planning community regulator.  A growing coalition of financial planning interests is not buying whatever FINRA is selling, and they are actively opposing that self-regulatory organization's expansion.  Me?  I'm siding with the financial planning coalition.  Like, what...FINRA has done such a great job regulating the broker-dealer community that it deserves this nugget? Frankly, I think it's time to break FINRA up into three more nimble regulators to oversee the large, mid-sized, and smaller members. The last thing we need is a single,  humongous, inefficient self-regulatory organization. The days of allowing any entity -- regulatory or otherwise -- to become so large that it prevents competition and poses a too-big-to-fail threat are over.  FINRA is big enough and not all that effective. Let's allow some other ideas and folks a chance to develop different self-regulatory approaches. 

Finally, here's a little gift to those of you who have stood against the headwinds these many months.  As the storms have swirled, you held on for dear life. Pounded by the subprime crisis. Blown over by the frozen credit markets. Buffeted by the mounting job losses and foreclosures. Clothes in tatters, drenched to the bone, you and I are still here.  They've tried to rock us to our core, but we're still clinging to the tree.  We sure haven't enjoyed it, but there is now a sense of some camaraderie in the trenches. If that's the best shot you had, we took it. We wobbled and our knees buckled, but we're in the center of the ring for this next round. Bruised. Battered. But still here. Rock me baby! We're going to get through this. Go ahead, like I said: Rock me baby! I can take it.

Just imagine AC/DC and the Rolling Stones, together, on our side, playing the soundtrack of our lives.