August 20, 2013.

SEC Deals With Turnover at the Top

The gin was served out to them in handleless china mugs. They threaded their way across the crowded room and unpacked their trays onto the metal-topped table, on one corner of which someone had left a pool of stew, a filthy liquid mess that had the appearance of vomit. Winston took up his mug of gin, paused for an instant to collect his nerve, and gulped the oily-tasting stuff down. When he had winked the tears out of his eyes he suddenly discovered that he was hungry. He began swallowing spoonfuls of the stew, which, in among its general sloppiness, had cubes of spongy pinkish stuff which was probably a preparation of meat. Neither of them spoke again till they had emptied their pannikins. From the table at Winston's left, a little behind his back, someone was talking rapidly and continuously, a harsh gabble almost like the quacking of a duck, which pierced the general uproar of the room.

Mary Jo White is the Securities and Exchange Commission's third boss in nine months. And it is even harder to keep up with the rest of the turnover near the top of the nation's securities-law enforcer.

"How is the dictionary getting on?" said Winston, raising his voice to overcome the noise.

In barely the past year, four of the agency's five divisional chiefs have stepped down, including the top SEC officials for trading and markets, corporation finance and enforcement, along with four of the 11 regional directors in offices scattered across the U.S.

"Slowly," said Syme. "I'm on the adjectives. It's fascinating."

Just one of the five specialized enforcement units launched in 2010 still is led by the same person, with three exits since May 1, according to a tally by The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, three of the SEC's five commissioners, who are picked by the U.S. president and must approve nearly every important decision by the agency, have left since December.