While securities regulation has always allowed for state enforcement authority, CFTC regulation and enforcement have generally been federal only. 

The development of prediction markets and of digital commodities, both of which may be primarily CFTC-regulated, will lead to jurisdictional battles between the CFTC and state regulators. Will the winner of the battles be decided by the courts (federal or state?) or by Congress? 

It is simply remarkable that a new mandate with such extraordinary impact on the financial markets could have been adopted with so little study and on such a fast timetable, with so few of the necessary market technology and operational infrastructure pieces in place.  

While the new SEC pushed back the timetable a bit, and addressed some of the burdens (e.g, mixed CUSIP), a lot of uncertainty as to market acceptance remains.  The costs of failure seem much greater than…

If anything goes wrong, no matter what, Senator Warren will be able to say she predicted it.  

If the world is, as President Trump believes, a dangerous place, it makes good sense to have a policy that provides for taking the offense.  

Not long ago, former CFTC Chair Giancarlo suggested that U.S. privateers be turned loose on enemy nations engaged in cyber crimes in the United States. (See .) President Trump might want to consider some of these out-of-the-box strategies.