[link|http://www.thenewrepublic.com/121701/chait121701.html|Jonathan Chait maintains this is a Bad Thing]

Excerpt:

The fact that Pitt has spent his career thwarting the SEC does not, by itself, preclude the possibility that he could make a dramatic turnaround as chairman. But even his very short tenure to date does not inspire confidence. He set the tone a few months after taking office, in a speech to the accountants' lobby, his former client. In a barely disguised repudiation of his predecessor, Pitt announced that the SEC would no longer act "in a demeaning, demanding, or demonizing way." By contrast, the aicpa, in Pitt's telling, "has always evidenced its deep commitment to protecting the public interest." In an interview with The Washington Post, Pitt called for a "kinder, gentler" agency.

And he seems well on his way to making it so. Pitt has already replaced the top staff of the agency's critical corporate-finance division--an unusual move at the SEC, where the previous two chairmen left the staffs they inherited in place--and installed people who, like him, have a background representing the industries the SEC regulates. In October the Commission instituted an amnesty policy, whereby firms accused of violations could turn themselves in and receive little or no punishment. "I think that there have been instances where what the agency has done is focus more on an after-the-fact casting of blame and aspersion than in figuring out how to protect investors," he told the Post. "We aren't going to play gotcha." Imagine if other law enforcement agencies took this view.