Policing the Markets

In the context of the waves of financial scandal to hit Canada, the U.S., the UK, and Europe over the past several years, Policing the Markets: Securities Enforcement and the Politics of Knowledgeability addresses the dilemmas underlying securities enforcement as a distinct regulatory enterprise. The regulatory response to these scandals, and of the abilities of the police, securities commissions, and self-regulatory organizations to detect and respond to problems in the marketplace, have attracted considerable criticism. But, James Williams argues, such criticisms tend to be rooted in a rather superficial understanding of the regulatory process, which fails to consider the actual practice of securities enforcement. Informed by interviews with police, regulators, lawyers, investor advocates, and industry insiders, as well as a wealth of documentary and archival materials, this book seeks to overcome this limited view by offering a more grounded account of the various factors that inform and shape securities enforcement as a highly politicized social practice. Constituted through a complex assemblage of mandates, technologies, rules, and routines, securities enforcement is shaped by a series of factors that together produce a very specific vision of financial misconduct '¬ ; one which, it is argued, captures some forms of disorder while overlooking others. Providing a much needed account of the concrete struggles encountered by regulators, Policing the Markets book will be of enormous interest to current research on securities enforcement, as well as the study of regulation and governance more generally.