Throughout the week over at Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web on the subjects of SEC enforcement and securities litigation. Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending December 24:

The insider trading crackdown and Reg FD

Truth on the Market | Larry Ribstein | Dec 27, 2010

In short, Reg FD likely reduced market efficiency until expert services came along to replace the information analysts had provided. Now the government is expending significant resources to put those services out of business. The market as a result will be less efficient, or will find some new and less transparent way to replace the lost information. Meanwhile the rule accomplishes nothing for ordinary investors other than suckering them into trading they shouldn't be doing.

Will Cash Incentives for Whistleblowing Undermine Compliance Programs?

Compliance Building | Doug Cornelius | Dec 27, 2010

Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides an expanded whistleblower program that allows the whistleblower to get part of the money paid to the SEC for the violation.... I think the approach is poor and could undermine corporate compliance programs. On the other hand, I think employees are more likely to report the problem internally than externally. Reporting externally is a much bigger step. You don't know who is getting the report or what they will do with it.

An indictment against Ernst & Young? Maybe not . . .

Washington Post | Allan Sloan | Dec 22, 2010

If you are going to screw up, make sure that you are working at a company that regulators aren't going to let fail. That's the lesson not only for big financial companies but for the Final Four big national accounting firms as well.

U.K. Judge Reluctantly Accepts The "Loosely and Hastily Drafted" SFO - BAE Plea Agreement

FCPA Professor | Mike Koehler | Dec 22, 2010

In an editorial, the Financial Times stated "... The government is planning to replace the SFO with a new economic crime agency – hopefully with real teeth. On the evidence of the BAE case, these initiatives are needed." Hope is a fitting word to end the BAE circus. Hope that a case of this magnitude is never again resolved the way it was resolved both in the U.S. and the U.K.