Whither Europe: European governments have about three months to save the monetary union, George Soros said at the Festival of Economics: "I expect that the Greek public will be sufficiently frightened by the prospect of expulsion from the European Union that it will give a narrow majority of seats to a coalition that is ready to abide by the current agreement. But no government can meet the conditions so that the Greek crisis is liable to come to a climax in the fall. By that time the German economy will also be weakening so that Chancellor Merkel will find it even more difficult than today to persuade the German public to accept any additional European responsibilities. That is what creates a three months’ window."

Investors wonder whether central bankers can come to the rescue again, as Europe signals another tumultuous summer for markets.

Self-defense: Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami defended his agency's low tally of prosecutions against top investment banking officials for charges arising out of the financial crisis. For one thing, said Khuzami, decisions on mortgage-backed securities weren't made at banks' highest levels. For another: “We are responsible for regulating 35,000 entities, and yet we are about the size of the D.C. police force.”

The SEC investigator suspended last month after he confided in co-workers his desire to carry a handgun had previously applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but was denied.

One insider trader hit the speaking circuit, hoping to build up some goodwill ahead of his sentencing today.

What's in a hedge? Rule makers contemplate the Volcker rule and JP Morgan's recent $2.3 billion "hedging" loss.

Fee fie: Bankruptcy lawyers are under pressure to justify fees that often exceed $1,000 per hour. The lawyers will have their chance to defend themselves today, at a public meeting with the Justice Department's Trustee Program.

Golden oldies: AIG CEO Robert Benmosche looks to the European debt crisis and sees retirement ages moving as high as 80.

Khuzami said that his agency is "also vigorously pursuing its case against Stanford and the others charged in this massive Ponzi scheme." He pointed to the "scope and egregiousness" of Stanford's crimes as reason for the SEC to "hold the wrongdoers accountable and seek maximum investor recovery."

Khuzami's remarks before the Senate Banking Committee follow a report by Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General David Kotz that says the SEC missed its chance to catch Stanford four times between 1997 and 2004. Kotz also says that the head of enforcement in the  SEC's Fort Worth office, Spencer Barasch, worked to prevent investigations of Stanford from going forward. After leaving the SEC, Barasch allegedly tried to join Stanford's legal defense.

Here are some of the commission's recent highlights, by order of appearance:

February - Bank of America's $150 million fine had been a long time coming. In August 2009, the S.E.C. announced a $33 million settlement for claims that the bank had misled its shareholders about $5 billion in Merrill Lynch bonuses. Within a few days, the settlement looked bad. Then it looked awful. Then Judge Jed S. Rakoff officially rejected it, publicly scolding the S.E.C. for going easy. In February, Judge Rakoff accepted a revised $150 million fine, but wasn't thrilled: "This," he grumbled, "is half-baked justice at best." 

April - Private equity god Steven Rattner didn't get to settle with the S.E.C. over the hilariously lurid pay-to-play New York pension fund scandal, but his old firm, Quadrangle, did. The firm not only agreed to pay $5 million, but it publicly disavowed its old boss, volunteering that his "conduct was inappropriate, wrong, and unethical."

May - When Pequot Capital and former hedge fund giant Arthur Samburg were fined $28 million, the real lesson, besides not trading on illegal insider information, was to be kind to ex-spouses.

July - After all the fuss and noise, not to mention the rumors that Goldman Sachs would be paying up to $5 billion, Goldman Sachs suddenly settled accusations that it had misled its investors, paying $550 million and admitting no wrongdoing. On the one hand, as the S.E.C. enforcement director Robert Khuzami pointed out a lot, it was the most a financial services firm had ever been fined by the S.E.C. On the other hand, Goldman was giddy. "I'm jumping up and down and telling my dad to buy," said Brad Hintz, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers, who now analyzes Goldman for Sanford C. Bernstein.

July - This got overshadowed by Goldman, so you probably don't remember that Dell, its former executives, and its billionaire founder were fined more than $100 million for padding earnings with sly payments from Intel. They're probably happy it didn't stand out: "We are pleased," mogul Michael Dell said, "to have resolved this matter."

July - To make up for billions of dollars of underreported subprime holdings during the months leading up to the climax of the financial crisis, Citigroup was fined $75 million this summer, and ex-CFO Gary Crittenden had to pay $100,000, slightly edging out former investor relations chief Arthur Tildesley Jr.'s $80,000. "This was not what we call in the law malum per se, bad people trying to do bad things, evil doings," Citi chairman Richard Parsons said afterwards, speaking about executives during the financial crisis. "These are people who got caught up." But Judge Ellen S. Huvelle was not amused. She rejected the deal, asking, among other things, "why the agency charged only two executives with wrongdoing when more senior executives were involved."

August - On Wednesday, the S.E.C. declared that the State of New Jersey had committed securities fraud by misleading investors about the condition of its two biggest pension funds (citing bonds in 79 offerings that added up to $26 billion). On the one hand, it was the S.E.C.'s first-ever fraud case against a state; on the other, New Jersey settled without paying a fine, or admitting or denying the accusations. So life goes on.