It has been, in many ways, a thankless job. When William Donaldson was appointed as the head of America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by George Bush in 2003, it was in the wake of enormous accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and others. His task was to restore investor confidence battered by news of rampant corporate malfeasance even as new scams-widespread trading abuses in the mutual-fund industry, dodgy dealings in insurance-were coming to light. On June 1st, after a tumultuous time in the job, Mr Donaldson announced his retirement from the agency.
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