Market 2000 An Examination of Current Equity Market Developments

In the pages that follow, the Commission's Division of Market Regulation has set forth its views regarding some of the most difficult structural issues affecting our securities markets today. While my views, and those of my fellow Commissioners, on the substance of the Study are set forth in the statement that follows this, I wanted to preface those comments with some personal observations. From 1978 to 1989, I had the privilege of serving as Chairman of the American Stock Exchange. Those years saw much of the development of a national market system in response to the stimuli provided by the Commission and the Congress. I was pleased to participate in that development and to experience first-hand the beneficial effects to the public that flow from competition between and among securities markets. Accordingly, when President Clinton invited me to serve as Chairman of the Commission, I was particularly pleased to learn that the Division had substantially completed its substantive work on the preparation of this, the Market 2000 Study. This Study seeks to provide a methodology for resolving many of the most-cul