Icarus and His Waxen Wings: Congress Attempts to Address the Challenges of Insider Trading in a Globalized Securities Market

This Note addresses the globalization of the world financial securities markets and the potential for fraud in these expanded markets. The author considers actual cases of insider trading that have crossed national borders and the enforcement problems such cases raise. The author analyzes the first significant response by the United States Congress to these problems and concludes that the response is inadequate. Congress recognizes the incredible pace of evolution of the world financial markets, but is slow to address this process. The SEC offered serious proposals to Congress--proposals that apparently have bipartisan support--and Congress failed to act on these proposals within a reasonable time. The author recommends that Congress adopt the SEC\u27s current proposals in this regard and that the United States should continue to negotiate multilateral cooperation agreements that regulate the globalized securities markets and stop the abuses of insider trading