Arthur Levitt Jr. (born 1931) was the twenty-fifth and longest serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1993 to 2001. Widely hailed as a champion of the individual investor, he has been criticized for not pushing for tougher accounting rules. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... A Chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. ... “Securities and Exchange Commission” redirects here. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

Growing up in Brooklyn, Levitt received his first exposure to the world of finance through his father, Arthur Levitt, Sr., who served as New York state comptroller for 24 years and was sole trustee of the largest pension fund in America at the time. Levitt graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College in 1952 before serving for two years in the Air Force. He first worked as a drama critic for The Berkshire Eagle, and after the Air Force, he was with Time-Life for five years. He then sold cattle and ranches as tax shelters before joining a new brokerage firm, Carter, Berlind & Weill, which eventually evolved into Shearson Loeb Rhoades. After sixteen years on Wall Street, Levitt became the Chairman of the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) in 1978. In 1989, he left the AMEX to serve as Chairman of the New York City Economic Development Corporation until 1993. Before joining the SEC, Levitt owned Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Arthur Levitt, Sr. ... NY redirects here. ... The Phi Beta Kappa Key The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic honor society with the mission of fostering and recognizing excellence in the undergraduate liberal arts and sciences. ... Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... Time-Life is a book, music, and video marketer, that since 2003 has been combined with catalog reseller Lillian Vernon as a subsidiary of Direct Holdings Worldwide, and is no longer owned by its former parent Time Warner. ... Elaborate marble facade of NYSE as seen from the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... The American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is an American stock exchange situated in New York. ... The New York City[1] Economic Development Corporation[2] works with the private and public sectors on economic development initiatives to revitalize businesses, create jobs, and generate revenues for the City. ... Published Monday to Thursday when the United States Congress is in session and Mondays only during recess, Roll Call provides its readers with up-to-the-minute news of the legislative and political maneuvers that happen every day on Capitol Hill. ...

Chairman of the SEC

Levitt was appointed to his first five-year term as Chairman of the SEC by President Clinton in July 1993 and reappointed in May 1998. He left the Commission on February 9, 2001, and was succeeded by Harvey Pitt. Levitt has said that he first learned of his being considered for the job from The Wall Street Journal. William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Harvey Pitt was appointed 26th chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2001. ... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an influential international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City, New York with Asian and European editions, and a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million as of 2006, with 931,000 paying online subscribers [2]. It was the...

At the time Levitt came to the SEC, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) had proposed closing an accounting loophole that allowed companies to avoid recording stock options on their balance sheets, and the American business community was aligned with the accounting industry to fight the proposal. According to a Merrill Lynch study, expensing stock options would have reduced profits among leading high-tech companies by 60% on average. Congress began to exert pressure on the FASB, and on May 3, 1994, the Senate, led by Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, passed a non-binding resolution condemning the proposal by a vote of 88-9. Along with the major shift in Congress that occurred with the elections, Levitt was concerned that any law enacted by Congress might kill independent standard setting. In what he later said "was probably the single biggest mistake I made in my years at the SEC", he urged the FASB to not go ahead with the rule proposal.^[1] The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private, non-for-profit organization whose primary purpose is to develop Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (US GAAP). ... Stock option expensing is a method of accounting for the value of share options, distributed as incentives to employees, within the profit and loss reporting of a listed business. ... is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Politics Portal      The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  Politics Portal      Further information: Politics of the United States#Organization of American political parties The Democratic... Joseph Isadore Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is an American politician from Connecticut. ... The U.S. House election, 1994 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1994 that occurred in the middle of President Bill Clintons first term. ...

One speech he gave as chairman was in September 1998 at New York University. His speech, entitled "The Numbers Game," addressed five ways in which corporations were managing earnings (big bath charges, creative acquisition accounting, cookie-jar reserves, materiality, revenue recognition). In his speech, Levitt advocated improving the transparency and comparability of financial statements.

In 1997, the SEC under Levitt's leadership approved the exemption of some Enron partnerships from the tight accounting controls of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Without this exemption, critics maintain, the company would have been constrained by strict rules found in 1996 legislation that would have prohibited certain foreign investments and the shifting of debt to its foreign subsidiary shell companies.

During Levitt's tenure at the SEC, he was widely viewed as a pro-investor advocate and received favorable press coverage. However, more recently he has come under criticism for failing to act against 1990s bull market abuses. Critics include former Wall Street Journal reporter Charles Gasparino, author of Blood on the Street, and Gary Weiss, who harshly upbraids Levitt in his 2006 book Wall Street Versus America. The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with an average daily circulation of 1,800,607 (2002). ... Charles (Charlie) Gasparino is an on-air editor for CNBC. Gasparino also currently writes for Newsweek and previously wrote for the Wall Street Journal. ... Gary Weiss is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of Born to Steal and Both books are harshly critical humorous examinations of the ethics and morality of Wall Street, often tinged with humor. ...

After the SEC

In 2005, Levitt was named a special advisor to the American International Group's board of directors and the board's nominating and corporate governance committee following the resignation of CEO and Chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who left after an investigation into the firm's accounting practices by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. American International Group, Inc. ... Maurice R. Hank Greenberg (born May 4, 1925 in New York City) is an American businessman and former chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG), the worlds largest insurance and financial services corporation. ... Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American lawyer, politician and the current Governor of New York. ...

Levitt oversaw an audit published in August 2006, by Kroll Inc., where he is a consultant, describing how the City of San Diego had allowed a pension deficit of $1.43 billion. The report blamed around 30 city officials, including five current council members. Kroll charged the City of San Diego $21 million dollars for the report, with the original contract valued at $200,000, with Levitt costing the city $900 per hour for his work. The Kroll Report's costs are a perfect example of the bungling nature of municipal governance in San Diego. basic[1]

Awards and honors

In January 2001, Levitt received the "Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets" from the Yale School of Management. The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Yale SOM offers M.B.A. and Ph. ...

See also

• Securities and Exchange Commission appointees

Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission are appointed by the President of the United States: Under Franklin D. Roosevelt: Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. ...

Further reading

• Levitt, Arthur; Paula Dwyer [October 2002]. Take On the Street: What Wall Street and Corporate America Don't Want You to Know. What You Can Do to Fight Back. Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-42178-5 (hardcover); ISBN 978-0-375-71402-3 (trade paperback); ISBN 978-0-553-75694-4 (abridged audio CD). 

Notes and References

• Labaton, Stephen. "Exemption Won in 1997 Set Stage For Enron Woes", New York Times, January 22, 2002. 
• (June 2005) "Arthur Levitt". On Wall Street Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.  Levitt's biography as told by him to the editorial staff.
• SEC Biography: Chairman Arthur Levitt. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.

Notes

1. ^ Congress and the Accounting Wars. Bigger Than Enron. FRONTLINE. Retrieved on 2006-10-15. Containing excerpts from FRONTLINE's interviews.