SEC Speech: Keynote Address to the Columbia Law and Business Schools; New York, New York; December 19, 2007 (Christopher Cox)

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Speech by SEC Chairman: Keynote Address to the Columbia Law and Business Schools Cross Border Securities Market Mergers Conference

by

Chairman Christopher Cox

New York, New York U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

New York, New York December 19, 2007

Thank you, Dean [David] Schizer, for that kind introduction — and thanks to both the Law School and the Business School for jointly sponsoring this conference. As a long-time enthusiast for joint business and law training, I'm delighted to participate in such a practical demonstration of the complementarity of these two disciplines. And it's a pleasure to see so many of Columbia's luminaries here — including Professor Harvey Goldschmid, who preceded me on the Securities and Exchange Commission and whose gracious personal invitation is the reason I'm here today.

It's especially nice to see my immediate predecessor as Chairman and now good friend, Bill Donaldson, as well as Mike Eisenberg, who was both Bill's and my Director of the Division of Investment Management. Chester Spatt, who served under Bill as Chief Economist at the SEC and whom I reappointed, is also here, as is Giovani Prezioso, my first General Counsel who was originally appointed by Chairman Donaldson. Both Rick Ketchum and Brandon Becker, who are also here, served as Director of the SEC's Division of Market Regulation.

The current SEC is here in force as well, with my colleague on the Commission and former Director of the Division of Market Regulation Annette Nazareth, Trading and Markets Director Erik Sirri, and International Affairs Director Ethiopis Tafara all here this afternoon. And Kathy Kinney is of course with us. Kathy's work as President of the NYSE is very much at the center of what this conference, and indeed my own remarks, are all about.

Above all, it's a special honor to be introduced by the scholar whose name inevitably comes up when the topic is the impact of taxation on investment.

http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2007/spch121907cc.htm (1 of 10)21/12/2007 12:20:07 SEC Speech: Keynote Address to the Columbia Law and Business Schools; New York, New York; December 19, 2007 (Christopher Cox)

That topic holds infinite interest, not only because I spent nearly two decades in Washington working on tax policy in the White House and Congress before joining the SEC, but also because it brings back memories of my own time in the classroom as a teacher. A quarter century ago, I taught a course called "Tax Factors in Business Decisions" to second year MBA students at Harvard.

I particularly remember the experience of grading the students' final exams. There were two cases on the final — two business situations nefariously constructed to contain every known tax problem. The exam lasted four hours. Naturally, each of the students filled up multiple blue books. All, that is, except one.

I can't tell you how excited I was when I picked up this student's single blue book. I was intrigued to find out what this model of concision could possibly look like. And then, when I opened the cover, I discovered that he'd written on just the first page of the one blue book. Here is what he wrote:

"Dear Professor Cox: What I have learned in your course is that federal income tax is extraordinarily complicated. And when I go into business, I'll be sure to hire someone who knows what he's doing in this area."

I'm reasonably certain that this fellow ended up with a career in improv, rather than tax accounting.

Yet another reason I'm so pleased to be at Columbia is your unparalleled focus on securities issues, on corporate governance, and the important current leadership challenges exemplified by this very conference.

The great intellectual Jacques Barzun, whose name one automatically associates with Columbia, just 20 days ago celebrated his 100th birthday. He onc