The revolving door

Jul 23, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – It is the first time that I hear Lyte is right. Always thought that it was might that made everything right. Whether might or right, there is Dr. Mark Lyte.  Late of toils in the trenches for Guyana’s teachers, now in the warm, embracing bosom of the PPP for the September 1 showdown with destiny.  I am with Dr. Lyte whatever his business is.  Not with him in his business with the PPP, but his sacred right to do so.  And while on the issue of business, it would help Guyanese, if I share how a certain kind of business is conducted in the good, ole USA.  Wall Street business to be specific.  Just absorb.  Make no connections.

There is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among other watchdogs.  The SEC’s constituencies include from towering Wall Street investment banks, to bustling Wall Street brokerage firms, and itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny Wall Street penny ante operators.  Those who are at home with the insulting have had a good laugh calling the latter category derogatory names, ranging from boiler rooms to bucket shops to slimeball outfits.  The SEC is both feared and hated, depending on the situation, contingent upon outcomes. Then, lo and behold, the people at the SEC are loved and cherished.  Reminds me of marriages.  Reminds me also that the age of miracles is not over.  They still happen, though most curiously, most unexpectedly.  Try this fact pattern.  I have lived through my share of them, which I relive to give Guyanese a glimpse into how the world works its revolving door.

The SEC announces an audit at a big firm, identifies documents that the firm must provide.  The SEC turns up, examines the files, talks to bundles of people.  People in the trenches, those who do the real work.  Then the SEC converses with the other people up in the big corner offices.  These are the bigshots, the ones who make real decisions.  Wall Street bigshots can make big decisions, including ones involving big money, in special circumstances.

When I say big money, I speak of a compensation package of comparatively many millions annually.  Special circumstances mean going easy, overlooking some issues.  How many promptings are required to move a man from a million or so a year to five or six times as much?  From a government job, to a plush private sector gig with Masters of the Universe?  Plus, some fancy allowances.  Plus, an unlimited corporate platinum card that opens the doors of 5-star hotels and restaurants, and first-class seats on top airlines?  After all, global travel would be part of the package.  It’s as easy as a no brainer, that revolving door.

In my time, very few had shown that they were lacking in the kind of brainpower that enabled them to jump ship and steel their stomachs to shake hands with the devil.  Usually, the SEC ended up one short, while wondering what the taxpayers paid.  One becomes glaring when the Masters of the Universe blowup the world; then former SEC untouchables lose their halo.  They look lesser, for looking the other way.  Millions make a man see things differently, clearly.  What he should see, what he shouldn’t.  How he does well for himself when he comports himself in the Wall Street way.  Oh, by the way, those are US millions greasing the one-way revolving door, for clarity.

People always whisper about the appearance, the timing of these moves.  It is good for Guyanese to remember that people will talk, question, criticize.  It’s the nature of the creature.  Why so soon after an audit, such and such moves to the same Wall Street firm just subject to supposedly close scrutiny?  What could have been at stake for the audited Wall Street firm, and what were the chips dangled as the price of the exchange?  In sharper language, how was the business of the taxpayers sold down the drain, and for how many pieces of silver?  The answers for those questions usually surface when there is a crash, and a fall.  Wall Street has had its recent, repeated carnages, and it is revealing how loose SEC findings contributed, and how much damage resulted later to the paying public.  The correlations are uncanny between who was in charge of specific SEC audits and negotiations and the Wall Street firms where they ended up in quick time with prestigious titles and incentives.  When those firms took a later financial and regulatory beating, and the exposures followed, it was only then that the revolving door started getting more attention.  Decision makers labor on a 2-year limit for the revolving door, re who could move when, or represent clients before them.

Last call: bargains occur all the time.  Some are in good faith.  Most are what’s in it for me.  Nice setups.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Dr. Mark Lyte, GHK Lall, Guyana Elections, PPP, Revolving door

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