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Opinion Headlines

  1. SEC. “Refusing to Buckle to SEC Intimidation.”   6-25-14
  2. SEC as Prosecutor and Judge. By Russell Ryan. [The agency is dodging the courts…]   8-5-14
  3. SEC, money funds. “Saving Taxpayers from Money Funds” […SEC removes … federal guarantee]   7-24-14
  4. SEC. “Let’s Not Shortchange The SEC.” By Robert Greifeld   7-8-14
  5. SEC. LTE. “Judge, Jury and Executioner: Is That What We Want?”   8-12-14
  6. SEC. “When the SEC’s ‘Fair Disclosure’ Rules Backfire.” By John Levin. [Regulatory information blackouts that lead to more market volatility are not in the public interest.] 10-28-14
  7. SEC. “Dissenting From an SEC Windfall For Lawyers.” By Daniel M. Gallagher et. al. [A $600 million ‘fair fund’ is likely to benefit only class-action attorneys and the fund’s administrators.] 11-11-14
  8. SEC. “Get the SEC Out of the PR Business.” By Russell G. Ryan. [Crowing about prosecutions is inappropriate when the agency is also the one deciding guilt and innocence.] 12-1-2014
  9. SEC. “Regulators Are a Proxy Adviser’s Best Friend.” [How SEC advisories have muddied voting rules and empowered Institutional Shareholder Services.] 12-18-14
  10. SEC. “A Small-Cap Idea With Little to Recommend It.” By Arthur Levitt. [The SEC’s plan to create special exchanges sounds like a solution in search of a problem.] 3-3-15
  11. SEC. “Blowing the Whistle on the SEC’s Latest Power Move.” By Eugene Scalia. [The regulator would make employee confidentiality agreements a back door for access to trade secrets.] 4-6-15
  12. SEC. LTE “SEC’s Action Has a Good Precedent.” 4-21-15 (see 4-6-15 headline, here)
  13. SEC. “Getting the Politics Out of Proxy Season.” By James R. Copland. [Time for the SEC to rethink a policy from the days of 1970s protests.] 4-23-15
  14. SEC. LTE. “SEC: Bring Back the Downtick Rule.” 5-2-15
  15. SEC. “The SEC Flubs the ‘Flash Crash’ Test. By William J. Brodsky. [ The agency’s mandated audit trail won’t protect equities markets from another major disaster.] 5-6-15
  16. SEC. “Protecting Shareholders From Activist Proxies.” By Nicholas Donatiello et.al. [The SEC needs to put more teeth in its guidance and clarify its standards.] 5-29-15
  17. SEC. “How to Rein In the SEC.” By William McLucas et.al. [Holding in-house hearings on charges the regulator itself has authorized is undermining public trust.] 6-3-15
  18. SEC. LTE. “SEC Ignores Its Appeals Guidelines.” 6-10-15
  19. SEC. LTE. “Sen. Warren’s Criticism of Mary Jo White Is Mistaken.” 6-10-15
  20. SEC. “Elizabeth Warren and the Markets.” [The Massachusetts Senator takes a political hostage at the SEC.] 7-9-15
  21. SEC. “The Warren Commission.” [An SEC rule on CEO pay designed as a political weapon.] 8-6-15
  22. SEC. “A Misbegotten Political Jab at CEO pay.” By Thaya Knight. [The SEC tries to embarrass companies about income inequality, but the agency is likely to be the one blushing.] 8-11-15
  23. SEC. “In an Election Year, Let’s Agonize Over CEO Pay.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [A new SEC rule has no function except to feed the Democratic chorus of grievance.] 8-12-15
  24. SEC. LTE. “The Focus on CEO Pay May Have Unanticipated Results.” 8-14-15
  25. SEC. “Let Tim Cook Speak (About Business)” by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. 8-26-15
  26. SEC. Securities trading. LTE. “Nasdaq’s System Has the Capacity.” 8-31-15
  27. SEC. “Ending the Ratings Racket.” [Seven years after the financial crisis, the SEC enacts a critical reform.] 9-19-15
  28. SEC. “Nothing to Fear From the SEC?” by William R. Baker III and Joel H. Trotter. [“…Directors are now preoccupied with regulatory compliance at the expense of time spent growing their companies…”] 10-29-15
  29. SEC. “Investment Advisers Don’t Need Mystery Monitors.” By Norm Champ. [The SEC’s plan to farm out examinations to third parties would be costly to firms and their clients.] 11-23-15
  30. SEC. “Equities Policy Needs Surgery, Not Band-Aids.” By Paul Atkins. [Volatility, flash-crash risks and bigger dark pools are the legacy of the SEC’s Regulation NMS.] 1-15-16
  31. SEC. “Mutual Funds Are Risky.” [A new liquidity rule may exacerbate the next financial panic.] 2-4-16
  32. SEC. “Accountability for Preet Bharara.” [David Ganak’s abusive prosecution case can proceed to trial.] 3-11-16
  33. SEC. LTE. “Disclosure Is Just a Means to a Political End.” 4-15-16
  34. SEC. “Schumer’s Self-Detonating Confirmation Demand.” By Joseph A. Grundfest. [His insistence that SEC nominees reveal how they would vote on a speech matter ensures they would have to recuse themselves.] 4-25-16
  35. SEC. “Phil Mickelson and the SEC’s Legal Bogey.”  By David Rosenfeld.  [A tippee who doesn’t know the tipper provided the information in exchange for a personal benefit has not violated any law.]  6-16-16
  36. SEC. “No More Dizzying Earnings Adjustments.”  By Robert C. Pozen.  6-22-16
  37. SEC.  LTE.  “SEC Chief Follows the Law and Precedents.”  6-28-16
  38. SEC. “An Iniquitous Raid on Private Equity.” By Norm Champ.  [The SEC has used an enforcement action to make a dramatic policy change.  That’s not the way to do it.]  6-29-16
  39. SEC. “A Sneak Peek at Corporate Data – for a Fee.”  By M. Todd Henderson.   7-25-16
  40. SEC. “The SEC Plays Judge and Jury.”  By Kimberley A. Strassel.  [How the agency has gone after Lynn Tilton is typical of Obama’s approach to politics.]   8-5-16
  41. SEC. “The Money Fund Mistake.”  [Borrowing costs rise thanks to a looming SEC regulation.]  8-16-16
  42. SEC. “Miami Accounting Vice.”  [Sen. Warren wants more defendants in financial cases.  Here they are.]  9-20-16
  43. SEC. “More Systemic Government Risk.”  [Extending the money-fund mistake to other financial markets.]  10-7-16
  44. SEC. “Queen Elizabeth Gives Orders to Hillary.”  [Senator Warren wants veto power over the economic-policy team.]  10-17-16
  45. SEC. “Let the SEC Set Its Own Agenda.”  By Arthur Levitt Jr.  [Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants SEC Chairman Mary Jo White fired for doing her job.]  10-24-16
  46. SEC. “Mary Jo White Packs Up.”  [The independent SEC chief wasn’t another Obama regulator.]  11-16-16
  47. SEC. “The SEC Tax Comes to Portlandia.”  [Political grandstanding on CEO pay will impose real economic costs.]  11-16-16
  48. SEC. “When Is a Judge Not Really a Judge.”  By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew M. Grossman.  [A dispute over whether the SEC can hear its own cases could lead to a shrinking administrative state.  1-24-17
  49. SEC. “Preventing The Next Madoff.” (Bookshelf by Gerald J. Russello) “Going Public” by Norm Champ. [Champ stepped into his role at the SEC invigorated by the spirit of reform. What he found was passivity and petty dysfunction.] 4-17-17
  50. SEC. “Supreme Court Disgorges the SEC.”  [The agency takes a unanimous beating for an enforcement abuse.]  6-6-2017
  51. SEC. “A Town’s ‘Creative Accounting’ Lead to a Fraud Conviction.”  [Such misrepresentation is common in municipal bookkeeping.  Rarely do officials answer for it.]  6-17-17
  52. SEC. “The Wolves of Long Island.”  [The SEC does its job in taking down a pump-and-dump stock scheme.]  7-20-17
  53. SEC. “The SEC’s Cyber Embarrassment.”  [The agency that lectures private companies can’t secure its own files.]  9-22-17
  54. SEC. “The SEC Plans to Collect Too Much Information.”  By Hal Scott and John Gulliver.  [It doesn’t need every investor’s Social Security number simply to probe stock-market crashes.]  10-3-17
  55. SEC. “Passive Investors, Don’t Vote.” By Dick Weil. [The SEC should recognize that index funds have no interest in the performance of particular companies.] 3-9-18
  56. SEC. “Unappointed ‘Judges’ Shouldn’t Be Trying Cases.” By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Andrew W. Grossman.   SEC. “Unappointed ‘Judges’ Shouldn’t Be Trying Cases.” 4-23-18
  57. SEC. “Leave Broker Disclosures to the SEC.” By Paul S. Atkins and Gregory F. Jacob. [The Labor Department should let stand a court ruling that threw out its ‘fiduciary rule.’] 5-3-18
  58. SEC. “How the SEC Stops Short Sellers From Keeping Markets Honest.” By Eric Winig. [Lengthy ‘delistings’ raise questions about whom the commission is protecting and at whose cost.] 7-2-18
  59. SEC.  “Six Months Isn’t ‘Long Term.’”  By Robert C. Pozen and Mark J. Roe.  [Trump misses the point in suggesting semiannual reporting.]  8-21-18
  60. SEC.  “What Elon Can Learn from Mark Cuban About Fighting the SEC.”  by Homan W. Jenkins, Jr.  [And why despite his preachments to the contrary, Tesla needs to raise fresh capital.] 8-25-18
  61. SEC.  “The SEC Has Ways to Stop the Slide in Public Offerings.”  By F. William McNabb III and Ronald P. O’Hanley.  [Emerging companies need regulatory relief to make IPOs easier.  Retail investors would benefit too.]  9-13-18
  62. SEC.  “Cracking the Proxy Racket.” 9-18-18
  63. SEC.  “Sharing the Wealth of Markets.”  [Useful ideas to expand ownership in fast-growing companies.]  9-21-18
  64. SEC. “SEC Overkill on Elon Musk.” [Why hasn’t Tesla’s board insisted on a potential CEO successor?”] 9-29-18
  65. SEC.  “How the SEC Silences Criticism.”  By Peggy Little.  [Its unconstitutional 1972 ‘gag rule’ is overdue for repeal.]  11-15-18
  66. SEC.  “Shut Up, the SEC Explained.”  [A lawsuit says gagging defendants who settle is unconstitutional.]  1-18-19
  67. SEC.  “We’re Suing the SEC to Protect the Stock Market.”  By Stacey Cunningham.  [An ill-advised price-control program would reduce transparency and increase volatility.]  2-15-19
  68. SEC.  “The SEC’s Misguided Attack on Shareholder Arbitration.”  By Hal Scott.  [Most securities class actions are meritless, yet federal regulators take action to encourage them.]  2-22-19
  69. SEC.  “Crazy Elon vs. the SEC, Round Two.”  By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.  [A diabolically innocuous tweet from Tesla’s CEO succeeds again in baiting securities regulators.]  3-2-19
  70. SEC.  “The SEC Sideswipes VW.”  [The agency shoots the wounded with a dubious enforcement theory.]  3-22-19
  71. SEC.  “Canada’s Free-Market Example for the SEC.”  by  John Hartsel and Peter St. Onge.  [Lighter regulation would cut compliance costs, which burden U.S. public markets.]  5-17-19
  72. SEC.  “The SEC’s Creative Regulatory Fix.“  by Harvey L. Pitt. [The commission cleans up the mess the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule made.]  6-5-19
  73. SEC.  “Fiduciary Rule Fixer-Upper.”  [An SEC rule protects investors and cleans up an Obama legal mess.]  6-10-19
  74. SEC. The SEC Wants to Give Public Investors a Fair Shot.” By Larry Harris. [It’s pilot study examines stock-exchange fees that favor high-frequency trading firms.] 7-19-19
  75. SEC. “The SEC Threatens to Go Soft on Internal Controls.” By Arthur Levitt. [A proposal to exempt certain companies from a full audit would encourage fraud and hurt investors.] 8-19-19
  76. SEC. “Meet the Biggest ‘Stakeholders.’” [The SEC brings some needed transparency to the proxy duopoly.] 8-28-19
  77. SEC. “There Is a Commission-Free Lunch.” [“The SEC’s new best-interest rule allows…] 10-2-19
  78. SEC. “The Proxy Protection Racket.” [The SEC shines some sunlight on a cozy business duopoly.] 11-11-19
  79. SEC. ‘The SEC’S China Evasion.” By Michael D. Mann and Arthur Levitt Jr. [The commission’s ‘buyer beware’ announcement looks tough but actually is irresponsible.] 5-7-20
  80. SEC.   “The Culture Wars Are Coming to the SEC.”   [Biden’s top securities regulator signals he’ll wade into social policy.]   3-4-21
  81. SEC.  “Gensler Blesses the Proxy Duopoly”  [The SEC Chair won’t enforce a rule to disclose conflicts of interest.]   6-24-21
  82. SEC.  “The SEC’s Private Market Takeover.”  [Chairman Gensler dances to the public pension tune.]   3-16-22
  83. SEC.  “The SEC’s Climate-Change Overreach.”  By Jay Clayton and Patrick McHenry.  [Congress shouldn’t palm its responsibility for social and economic policy off on financial regulators.]   3-21-22
  84. SEC.  “Gensler Stages a Climate Coup.”  [The SEC Chairman does the bidding of BlackRock and the left.]   3-22-22
  85. SEC.  “Sophisticated Private Investors Don’t Need the SEC’s Protection.”  By Harvey I. Pitt.  [New rules would regulate private funds that Congress specifically exempted from federal meddling.]   4-29-22
  86. SEC.  “A Judicial Ruling Challenges the SEC’s Illegal Power.”  By Mario Loyola.  [The fifth Circuit says the agency violates the Constitution by acting as prosecutor, judge and jury.]   5-23-22
  87. SEC.  “Never Enough Government, Says the SEC.”   by Homan W. Jenkins, Jr.  [America’s top stock-exchange regulator gives mission creep a bad name.]   6-25-22
  88. SEC.  “Gary Gensler’s Bitcoin Land Grab.”  [The SEC chief is blocking innovation until he can control it.]  7-7-22
  89. SEC.  “Gary Gensler’s Assault on U.S. Capital Markets.”  By Hal Scott and John Gulliver. [In 14 months, the SEC chairman has issued 23 proposed rules.  Many won’t survive in court.]   7-18-22
  90. SEC.  “The SEC’s Cryptocurrency Confusion.”  By J.W. Verret.  [Is bitcoin a security or a form of money?  A little bit of both, and other things as well.]   8-3-22
  91. SEC.  “The SEC Treats Crypto Like the Rest of the Capital Markets.”  By Gary Gensler.  [Securities laws that protect investors continue to apply even when new technologies come along.]   8-20-22
  92. SEC.  “The Peculiar Challenges of Crypto Regulation.”  By Jay Clayton.  [Opposing views are dug in, and sometimes they reflect disagreements with other longstanding policies.]   8-26-22
  93. SEC.   “The SEC Can’t Transform Itself Into a Climate-Change Enforcer.”  By Bernard S. Sharfman and James R. Copland. [It should junk its proposed disclosure rule, which is clearly unconstitutional as per West Virginia v. EPA.]  9-15-22
  94. SEC.  “The SEC Obstructs National Security.”  By Art Schwartz.  [Public disclosure of cyber attacks shows weakness to enemies.]   9-30-22
  95. SEC.  “The SEC’s Rules Are Getting Unreal.”  By Eric J. Pan.  [‘Regulation by hypothesis’ is bad for the capital markets.]   11-1-22
  96. SEC.  Gary Gensler Plays Robinhood.”  [he SEC’s stock trading redesign won’t help individual investors.]   12-16-22
  97. SEC.  “Where Was Biden’s SE Sheriff on Sam Bankman Fried?” by Allysia Finley.  [Gary Gensler has been the ‘cop on the beat’ – but he took little interest in FTX as the scandal developed.]   12-19-22
  98. SEC.  “A Fraction of a Cent Can Add Up to Millions.”   By Joe Mecane.  [The SEC proposes to reduce ‘tick sizes,’ the increment in which sock prices are quoted.]   12-29-22
  99. SEC.  “The SEC Seeks to Supplant the Market.”  By Phil Gramm and Hester Peirce.  [Its mandate doesn’t include telling CEOs how to run their companies and investors how to invest.]  1-20-23
  100. SEC.  “No, the SEC Can’t Regulate the Climate.”  By Donald Kochan.  2-16-23
  101. SEC.  “Two Strikeouts for the SEC on Crypto.”  [Gensler bids to match the losing legal record of Lin Khan’s FTC.]  8-31-23
  102. SEC.  “The SEC Targets Private Capital.”  By Hal Scott and John Gulliver.  [Its destructive new regulations aren’t likely to withstand a court challenge.]  9-5-23
  103. SEC.  “Gary Gensler’s Plan to Control Information.”  By Wm. P. Barr and Barbara Comstock.  [The SEC wants to limit ‘protective data analytics.’  The result would be to throttle market dynamism.]   9-11-23
  104. SEC.  “Gary Gensler Tells A Climate Whopper.”  [The SEC Chairman fibs to Congress about his pending disclosure rule.]   9-18-23SEC.  “The SEC Wants to Spy on Your Portfolio.”  by Warren Stephens and Paul C. Reilly.  “The Consolidated Audit Trail will record your Social Security number and all your stock trades.]   9-25-23
  105. SEC.  “What Is Gary Gensler Hiding.”  [The SEC protects a security breach from public view.]   10-14-23
  106. SEC.  “Sam Bankman-Fried and the SEC.”  [The feds can police crypto fraud without new regulation powers.]   11-4-23
  107. SEC.  “The SEC’s Latest Insider-Trading Theory.”  [The agency rewrites the law to invent a new offense ‘shadow trading.’]   2-28-24
  108. SEC.  “The SEC’s Political Climate Control.”  [Gay Gensler forces new disclosures that will hurt firms and investors.]   3-8-24
  109. SEC.  “SEC Pauses Its Climate Disclosure Rule.”  By Steven P. Lehotsky.  [The commission backs off while courts review the regulation.]   4-10-24
  110. SEC.  “The Securities and Exchange commission Is Watching You.”  By Wm. P. Barr.  [To prevent crime, The SEC plans to track the personal information of every investor in real time.]   4-16-24
  111. SEC.  “Atkins Is the Anti-Gensler for the SEC.”  [Trump makes a first-rate choice to run the securities regulator.]   12-5-24
  112. SEC. “The SEC Needs to Hold Chinese Companies Accountable.”  By Wm P. Barr and Fletcher W. Strong.  [The Biden administration has lagged in enforcing disclosure rules.  Paul Atkins can change that.]   12-23-24




















                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Issue Headlines

SEC. Wall Street Journal.  9-22-17,  P. A1

“SEC Gets Scrutiny For Slow Response to Hack.” By Dave Michaels, Jean Englesham, and Tatyana Shumsky.

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Talking Points

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