Fifty Years of Securities Regulation in Search of a Purpose

This Article examines the SEC'S purposes in formulating disclosure requirements throughout the past fifty years, the SEC'S disciplinary measures for violations, and the SEC'S recently proposed legislation prohibiting insider trading on nonpublic information. The author suggests that although the SEC exceeded its proper authority in the area of disciplinary measures in the 1970's, much of the overreaching has subsided. The author reviews certain proposed legislation and concludes that the proposed legislation is still too indefinite to meet the legitimate needs of the financial community.