Given the success that criminals and non-U.S. governments have had in penetrating the records of the U.S. government, it should be incumbent upon the SEC to explain either why (i) the CAT information cannot be hacked or (ii) the hack of the CAT information would not be significant to the U.S. government, broker-dealers, and investors. If such an explanation is not possible at the current time, it would seem prudent to put the system on hold.

Musical choice: (or something like that).

On a theoretical level, there are very good arguments that cost-benefit analysis is a very imperfect tool. See, e.g., .

On a more practical level, this memorandum may be a means to eliminate cost-benefit analysis as an impediment to rulemaking. For example, the regulators are given freedom to quantify "regulatory benefits" that the memorandum concedes are "impossible to quantify." These benefits may include, e.g., "human dignity." Who among the regulators will decide what constitutes…

The concept of a new self-regulatory organization ("SRO") has broad appeal, particularly in the securities industry. While there is no doubt that FINRA, the most important SRO, serves a critical function in the securities regulatory system, it is not really a "self-regulatory" organization in the plain-English sense of the word. The SEC can require FINRA (and the other securities SROs) to adopt specific rules; and they cannot adopt their own rules without the approval of the SEC. If the…