Governor Cook makes several claims in her Complaint.

Foremost is her allegation that she was dismissed because she has been opposed to reducing interest rates; (i.e., that she is being fired because they disagree on policy, and that the allegation of fraud is simply a pretext.)

As to the question of whether the existence of "independent agencies" is consistent with the Constitution, she does not address the issue directly, but rather argues that of all the independent agencies…

Over the last several days, FINRA settled a number of enforcement actions against individual brokers who put elderly customers into unsuitable positions or who traded at a level that, considering the costs of commissions, could not do anything but lose substantial money, which many of the trades seem to do even without the commission cost. (See, e.g., ; .)

It is not uncommon for FINRA to impose fines that seem quite substantial against institutions for violations that seem…

Here is the Wikipedia article on a "," a term that sounds even cooler than just a plain old "Letter of Marque." Like many things that seem totally crazy, this probably is not so crazy. According to Wikipedia, the use of the Letters arose in a time when "the ocean was lawless," a description that may not be wholly inapt as applied to criminal enterprise on the internet. Further, it is commonly reported that many cybercrime operations act with at least the tacit support of hostile foreign…

It will be interesting to see if the SEC has an interest in salvaging these rules by attempting the required cost-benefit analysis. Or, as is more likely, the SEC simply abandons them and moves on. The SEC has more important issues on its plate (digital assets, AI, cybersecurity, capital formation, clearing of US governments, CAT) than trying to fix yet another regulatory reporting requirement.

Even if one believed that there was some value to the extra disclosure of securities…