Today the SEC issued a press release seeking “highly qualified industry professionals to serve as Industry and Markets Fellows in the Office of Risk Assessment.” The idea is to create a team of “seasoned” financial pros to help the SEC stay abreast of market innovations to prevent market meltdowns such as we are now experiencing. Such a market “risk” committee is probably a good idea, but I wonder: Is it possible to regulate away market speculation? After all, as Greenspan wrote in the FT on March 27, “We have never successfully modelled the transition from euphoria to fear.” If you have thoughts on this, please let me know.

Anyone interested in applying, the market fellows positions’ comp starts at $108,286 and tops out at $227,300. The SEC says, “Individuals interested in applying for a position as an Industry and Markets Fellow should submit a resume and a cover letter to industryfellows@sec.gov before June 1, 2009.”