When Christopher Cox was appointed by President George Bush to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, some people compared it to putting the fox in charge of the hen house -- certain he would destroy all that had been built by one of the SEC's most effective leaders, Arthur Levitt. Wall Street wanted someone who it knew would reduce regulation and enforcement. They got what they wished for -- but are they pleased with the results? Probably not. Arthur Levitt was tough to deal with but I doubt any of this Wall Street mess would have happened if he were still in control of the SEC.

The Bernard Madoff scandal is just another in a long string of missteps from the agency Christopher Cox helped to dismantle. Cox's budget cuts and the regulation changes he encouraged removed the SEC's enforcement division's teeth, making it harder for the agency to impose penalties on corporations.

Christopher Cox rarely took a stance against anything Wall Street could dream up. When Bear Stearns was in trouble, he was like Nero declaring there wasn't a problem as Rome burned. Just three days after Cox assured investors all was well, Bear Stearns collapsed.

While calling Arthur Levitt's tenure as chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission ineffective would be an understatement, he could, and still can, be relied upon to say the right thing. Now that the SEC finally has the quorum necessary to take action on a variety of issues, they should take Levitt's advice about proxy access changes.

Earlier this year the SEC made it impossible for shareholders to change the way directors are elected -- one of the most anti-investor events in recent history -- and it's time for that to change. Levitt writes in The Wall Street Journal that "While not a panacea, giving shareholders a bigger voice in the companies they own would go a long way in helping to restore trust."

Exactly. Some critics of strong corporate governance say that the SEC shouldn't meddle in these affairs. I basically agree: but the problem is that the SEC has meddled, making it impossible for shareholders to take control of their own companies when necessary.