From Musk to Truth Social: Critics say the 46th President's SEC targeted Trump's allies

The 46th President was a lousy one! May he rest in hell and may the Dimocratic Party be damned for a long time for allowing this to happen!

"On January 14, 2025, just six days before President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second, non-consecutive term, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk, who was entering the administration with Trump as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). ...

After the purchase [of Twitter in 2022], Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, were also investigated by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Musk himself warned this would happen after he announced he would no longer vote Democrat. ...

Trump himself has faced the SEC recently – also under the [46th President] administration – when his Truth Social media platform began a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC). When the merger was announced, the SEC began investigating, and a federal grand jury in New York issued subpoenas for DWAC’s board of directors, arguably causing the company’s stock price to drop. The merger was slow-walked, alleges Truth Social. ..."

From Musk to Truth Social: Critics say Biden's SEC targeted Trump's allies | Just The News "Republicans have warned for years that the Biden-era Securities and Exchange Commission had been weaponized against Trump and his allies."

SEC & CFTC Harmonization: U.S. Financial Leadership in the Crypto Era to make the United States the crypto capital of the world

Good news! Bravo President Trump!

"SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Michael Selig will hold a joint event at CFTC headquarters to discuss harmonization between the two agencies and their efforts to deliver on President Trump’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world. ..."

SEC.gov | SEC – CFTC Harmonization: U.S. Financial Leadership in the Crypto Era

Credits: Bitcoin Magazine Daily News

SEC's Commissioner Crenshaw (D) Warns on Markets Turning into Casinos during a speech at The Brookings Institution. Really!

Serious stuff! Headline of the day!

Is she trying to trigger a stock market crash?

How President Trump might respond to that? He may have to fire her!

"Caroline Crenshaw, commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, spoke about the future of financial regulation at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC on 11 December 2025. She is the only commissioner who is a Democrat and said her voice has become one of “ubiquitous dissent.”

“It’s been unsettling to see how precipitously one commission is willing to undo the work of the commission that came before, all without a single notice and comment rule making to date,” she said. “The commission has also been shrouding its policy making in darkness shunning public comment, and instead relying on hidden voices to drive its agenda in a mad dash to implement its policy preferences.”

She described the regulator’s approach as treating investors like “silly children to be ignored” rather than fully formed persons with ideas and concerns worth hearing.

The fundamental precepts upon which U.S  markets are built are being eroded and that the core the country’s intricate market structure is under attack, according to Crenshaw. ...

“Instead of safeguarding our markets for investors to fund their retirements in safe and sustainable ways, we are moving in a direction where markets start to look like casinos,” she said. “The problem with casinos is that in the long run, the house always wins.” ..."

SEC's Crenshaw Warns on Markets Turning into Casinos - Markets Media

Caroline Crenshaw (Source)

The SEC approves new Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas to operate.

Good news! Say say everything is bigger in Texas!

"The decision paves the way for TXSE to start listing shares next year. The idea for the exchange, pronounced “tex-ee,” came after some executives complained about the New York Stock Exchange’s and Nasdaq’s regulations. Setting up a competitive new exchange won’t be easy; TXSE will need to attract a substantial trading volume. It raised around $160 million and is going after more, a person familiar with the matter said. Investors include BlackRock, Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab. Separately, investors are fretting that the Wall Street rally is on borrowed time."

The Wall Street Journal What's news

TXSE Group Inc announces SEC approval of Texas Stock Exchange (original news release) "TXSE brings real competition to the U.S. markets as the first and only fully integrated, national securities exchange built and headquartered in Texas."

SEC announces it will stop defending controversial climate disclosure rule

Good news! Bravo President Trump!

"The Security and Exchange Commission announced Thursday it will stop defending its controversial climate-disclosure rule against legal challenges, and it would not proceed with oral arguments.

“The goal of today’s Commission action and notification to the court is to cease the Commission’s involvement in the defense of the costly and unnecessarily intrusive climate change disclosure rules,” acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda said in a statement. ..."

SEC announces it will stop defending controversial climate disclosure rule | Just The News "The rule faced a barrage of lawsuits from interest groups, trade associations and 43 states, and the SEC announced in April it would not implement the rule while the legal challenges played out."

Acting SEC Chairman Mark T. Uyeda

SEC Rescinds SAB 121, Permitting Banks to Custody Bitcoin

Good news! Bravo!

"In a landmark decision, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121, a controversial rule that had long hindered banks from offering bitcoin and crypto custody services. ..."

SEC Rescinds SAB 121, Permitting Banks to Custody Bitcoin - Bitcoin Magazine - Bitcoin News, Articles and Expert Insights "The SEC has rescinded SAB 121, removing barriers for banks to custody Bitcoin and crypto, signaling a major shift in crypto regulation."

Even with more stringent provisions left out, the SEC's final climate disclosure rules are still superfluous and ridiculous

More nonsense from the administration of the lifelong, pathological and serial liar and senile, demented, and corrupt 46th President. This is time it is putting an extra and entirely unnecessary burden on U.S. companies!

Another consequence of the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion!

At least it was only a narrow decision: "While the rules left out some of the more burdensome reporting requirements for greenhouse gas emissions, disagreements remained between commissioners, resulting in a narrow 3-to-2 vote." But was it only narrow, because the more stringent rules were left out?

E.g. how many lawsuits will be filed by so called climate activists against companies supposedly not in compliance with these new rules?

"... “Small non-public companies will be harmed by facing higher compliance costs as public companies request non-material information on Scope 3 GHG emissions, or risk the loss of business if they fail to provide such information,” a coalition of Senate Republicans warned in a comment letter on the proposed rules. ...

Under the final rules that the SEC passed Monday, large and mid-sized companies will need to report their Scope 1 emissions, which are those that come directly from the company’s operations, as well as their Scope 2 emissions, which are those that come from their purchase of electricity, heating or cooling. ..."

"The Securities and Exchange Commission (“Commission”) is adopting amendments to its rules under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) that will require registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports.  The final rules will require information about a registrant’s climate-related risks that have materially impacted, or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on, its business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition.  In addition, under the final rules, certain disclosures related to severe weather events and other natural conditions will be required in a registrant’s audited financial statements."

Even with more stringent provisions left out, critics torch SEC's final climate disclosure rule | Just The News “While this rule will undoubtedly be challenged and hopefully overturned, the SEC embarrassed itself today. By bending to extreme climate activists and their grifting Wall Street allies, Gensler’s SEC has forever undermined its respectability,” Will Hild of Consumers' Research said.

Final Rule The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors

The SEC’s Climate-Disclosure Rule Goes against 90 Years of Restraint

More useless and costly regulations that nobody needs!

More absurdities due to the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion!

"The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finalizing a mandatory climate-disclosure rule for public companies — perhaps the costliest regulatory mandate in its entire 90-year history. In fact, the rule represents the first SEC-inspired disclosure that compels secondary information beyond a company’s present and prospective financial performance.  ...

Public companies and their private suppliers face significant financial costs if the rule is enacted. The SEC estimates a 250 percent increase for disclosure costs from the climate rule alone, raising the annual amount to $10.2 billion. ..."

The SEC’s Climate-Disclosure Rule Goes against 90 Years of Restraint - Competitive Enterprise Institute The final rule will likely expose the SEC to a torrent of legal challenges.


The SEC’s Wrongheaded AI Crackdown

Recommendable!

"... But under the guise of minimizing conflicts of interest, the SEC now proposes requiring advisers and broker-dealers to write new internal procedures and to log all uses of technologies relating to predictive data analytics for agency review. If left unchallenged, the new rules would hamper the American financial industry’s world-beating innovation. ...

Those costs are almost certain to be substantial, given the proposal’s capacious definition of a covered technology—“an analytical, technological, or computational function, algorithm, model, correlation matrix, or similar method or process that optimizes for, predicts, guides, forecasts, or directs investment-related behaviors or outcomes in an investor interaction.” If computing power is involved, the proposal’s text suggests, the SEC would like to know about it. These overbearing rules will leave all but the most established, robustly resourced, and well-staffed advisers and broker-dealers at a clear disadvantage in competing for customers’ business, further entrenching the largest players and raising barriers to entry. ..."

The SEC’s Wrongheaded AI Crackdown | City Journal Federal regulators announce a plan that would hamper financial innovation.

The SEC’s Strategy for Enforcing Regulation on Crypto, Explained

Recommendable! Is it a security or a commodity or both? And wich agency will get to regulate it, the SEC or the CFTC?

SEC Attempts to Regulate Indefinable ESG factors

This attempted power grab by the SEC is shocking and hopefully it will be quickly defeated! This clearly exceeds the authority of the SEC!

This is what you can expect with a lifetime pathological liar and opportunist, the demented and senile 46th President and the Dimocratic Party in power!
Unchecked growth of Big Government!

And who is this current Secretary of the SEC Ms. Vanessa Countryman? There is not even a Wikipedia entry on this woman! She joined the SEC under President Obama.

"... This proposal would amend the current SEC rule on investment company names first published in 2001. The goal of the proposed amendment, according to the SEC, is “to promote consistent, comparable, and reliable information for investors concerning funds’ and advisers’ incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) factors.” ..."

SEC Attempts to Regulate Indefinable “ESG” Topics - Competitive Enterprise Institute

Several state attorney generals have also submitted a strongly worded comment on these new proposed rules. See here.

"... The Proposed Rule here continues the Commission’s recent attempt to transform itself from the federal regulator of securities into the regulator of broader social ills. This time, the SEC has imagined that the market requires more Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) disclosures from investment managers. ...

The Proposed Rule may not be as egregious as some of the SEC’s other recent efforts in that it does not purport to regulate essentially the entire American economy—but that is about the most that can be said for it. The Proposed Rule is still deeply problematic for many reasons.
First, the Commission does not have the statutory authority to issue it.
Second, the Proposed Rule would violate the First Amendment’s free-speech guarantees.
Third, the Proposed Rule does not reflect reasoned decision making and would fail arbitrary-and-capricious review.  ..."

SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Exceeds Agency’s Statutory Authority, Raises Constitutional Concerns

Like the Obama administration, the administration of the demented and senile 46th president tries hard to strangulate the economy with excessive and unnecessary bureaucratic burdens!

Global Warming is a hoax! Climate Change is a religion!

"The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) plan to mandate companies disclose energy use and planning for climate change-related financial risks lacks authorization from Congress, infringes companies’ First Amendment rights, and fails any reasonable cost-benefit test ...
“The Securities and Exchange Commission does not have statutory jurisdiction to require climate-specific disclosure, and it is inappropriate for a finance agency to be making environmental policy. As the SEC acknowledges, companies already are required to disclose materially relevant climate data,” ..."

SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate Exceeds Agency’s Statutory Authority, Raises Constitutional Concerns - Competitive Enterprise Institute

SEC Charges NVIDIA Corporation with Inadequate Disclosures about Impact of Cryptomining

Why the heck is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission getting involved in this? Big Government watching you! These charges against Nvidia seem to be dubious!

Why would the company even know for sure what exactly its GPUs are being used for?

Would such disclosure the SEC is requesting not amount to speculative information?

"Nvidia will pay $5.5 million to settle charges that it unlawfully obscured how many of its graphics cards were sold to cryptocurrency miners. ..."

"The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against technology company NVIDIA Corporation for inadequate disclosures concerning the impact of cryptomining on the company’s gaming business.

The SEC’s order finds that, during consecutive quarters in NVIDIA’s fiscal year 2018, the company failed to disclose that cryptomining was a significant element of its material revenue growth from the sale of its graphics processing units (GPUs) designed and marketed for gaming. ...
NVIDIA had information, however, that this increase in gaming sales was driven in significant part by cryptomining. ..."

SEC.gov | SEC Charges NVIDIA Corporation with Inadequate Disclosures about Impact of Cryptomining

Credits: Synced Global AI Weekly

Biden admin invents 'Securities and Environment Commission' out of thin air to force climate agenda on US businesses

Recommendable! Absolutely unconstitutional! The economic incompetence of the administration of the 46th President is extraordinary!

"In a 3-to-1 vote last week, unelected Democratic bureaucrats who serve as the agency's commissioners voted without authorization from Congress to impose sweeping new rules that require all publicly traded companies to disclose how their business affects "climate change."

According to a press release issued by the SEC, the proposed rules would require businesses to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions along with any and all information relevant to "climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition."

In a lengthy statement of dissent, the SEC's lone Republican commissioner, Hester Peirce, quipped that with the move, the agency essentially re-invented itself as the "Securities and Environment Commission" without any say from the American people. ...

"In general, this rule will be as costly and burdensome on all businesses as the impact of Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley," ...

Though Milloy, for his part, seemed confident that the Supreme Court would immediately strike down the rules should they be finalized."

Biden admin invents 'Securities and Environment Commission' out of thin air to force climate agenda on US businesses - TheBlaze

SEC commissioner: We're putting climate risks on par with other risks

Who put this fool in charge of the SEC? The demented and senile 46th President!

On the SEC's Climate Disclosure Rules

More nonsense coming from the administration of the demented and senile 46th President!

In difficult times it is not advisable to burden the U.S. economy with more regulations and requirements! In particular, if the new rules are based on the pseudo science behind the Global Warming Hoax and Climate Change religion!

Unfortunately, President Trump overlooked to eliminate this SEC’s 2010 “Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change” and everything else related to it! 

"In September 2021, they sent comment letters to several companies across industries seeking more information about their climate-related disclosures (or lack of such disclosures) referencing the SEC’s 2010 “Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change”."

Climate Disclosure Poses Thorny Questions for SEC as Rules Weighed - WSJ Key sticking point is the counting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by customers and suppliers

The SEC On Climate Disclosure

Ponzi And The SEC

Posted: 9/16/2018

Trigger

Just watched this History Channel documentary about Ponzi: In Search Of History - Charles Ponzi & His Scheme (History Channel Documentary). Ponzi actually had a long history of petty crime of fraud and theft before his infamous Ponzi scheme.

“... In its heyday, nearly 75% of Boston's police force had invested in Ponzi's scheme. Ponzi's investors even included those closest to him, like his chauffeur John Collins and his own brother-in-law. … ” (Source 1)

Some people even send Ponzi money for future investments while he was in prison after his conviction for fraud! Hope springs eternal! After release from prison he started a new swindle in another state, i.e. Florida.

An Irony Of History

I was so stunned when the above documentary mentioned the name of the company under which Charles Ponzi conducted his scheme: Securities Exchange Company (abbreviated SEC). Ponzi started his fraudulent company in 1920.

The all powerful and unconstitutional U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was formed in 1934, in the aftermath of the Wall Street stock market crash of 1928, is also commonly abbreviated as SEC. Was this name deliberately chosen?

As they say truth or reality is often stranger than fiction!

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi

Insider Trader Mark Cuban - Lessons Learnt

Trigger

I have been following insider trading cases with some interest for years, not in great detail, but with a keen sense that insider trading is probably one of those elastic criminal offenses allowing prosecutors wide latitude.

The attorney of Mark Cuban. Mr. Lyle Roberts, just published (11/18/2013) a remarkable op-ed in the Opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal titled “Behind the SEC's Pursuit of Mark Cuban/Regulation through litigation is no way to run a government agency.” (Unfortunately, subscribers only).

I am glad that Mr. Cuban is outspoken and I appreciate his strong words after his trial, which first caught my attention.

Summary And Comments

The article is quite long, so I will limit myself to salient points (emphasis added):

1. The SEC resorts to regulation through litigation. The SEC often appears to be making up rules as it goes along.
2. The SEC has for some time engaged in a more aggressive posture pursuing what the SEC describes as “fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market”
3. The article describes briefly the “misappropriation theory”, which the SEC extended in 2000 by issuing Rule 10b5-2. From there, the SEC widened its approach from formal confidentiality agreement to the know famous “wink and a nod” informal agreement and any exchange of any material, nonpublic information. The SEC abandoned the requirement/principle that two agreements are necessary: 1) Confidentiality 2) Non-trade
4. The classical case of insider trading is where a corporate officer without disclosing the material, nonpublic information trades for his own benefit and thereby fraudulently violates his fiduciary duties to the owners.
5. At the other, opposite end of insider trading is the purely coincidental individual who has no relations etc. with a particular publicly traded company who learns by accident (e.g. in the elevator off the premises of the publicly traded company by overhearing the conversation of some other, unfamiliar individuals) of some material, nonpublic information of such a company and trades on it.
6. The jury of Mr. Cuban found that he had informed the company in advance of his intention to sell.
7. The jury of Mr. Cuban also found that the information in question was not material, nonpublic information in the first place. Black eye for the SEC, waste of taxpayer money for everyone else.
8. Not to mention that it cost Mr. Cuban years of his life and enormous legal bills to defend him.

Kudos And Thanks To Mr. Mark Cuban

All securities traders and the general public should be thankful to Mr. Cuban for raising this insider trading overcriminalization issue to prominence.

About The Securities Exchange Commission

This would be enough substance for another blog post by itself. Thus, I will keep it very brief here.

The SEC is an outdated behemoth dating back to the Great Depression and New Deal era. It was one of many overreactions of President F. D. Roosevelt’s administration. In my opinion it should be abolished and to be started over. Perhaps, we do not even need such a federal agency!

What Is Actually Wrong With Insider Trading?

Actually, nothing I would boldly assert!

It is a carefully crafted myth that only wealthy, privileged persons have access to so called material, nonpublic information of publicly traded companies. The Mark Cuban case only serves to strengthen this myth.

Any trading in stocks is generally beneficial! The faster trades on any information is executed the better. So called insider trading is an opportunity for other traders to take advantage of. Do we actually know how many so called insider traders have lost money or were unsuccessful, because they are probably not as often prosecuted.

Insider trading is one of those criminal offenses that make little sense, but offer big government a big stick to harass anyone they don’t like.

If a corporate officer engages in fraudulent or harmful trading in the company in violation of formal agreements, the person works for, then the company should fire this person instantly.

Who Indicts Members Of The Federal Government And Congress?

The Feds Are Still Scapegoating Others By Indicting Standard & Poor’s

It is incredible, about five years after the financial crisis, the federal government and state attorneys are suing this company. As their evidence they are citing tweets of 2007 from individuals working for this company when most people knew the housing market was a bubble to pop etc.

Why Are The Feds Indicting An NSRO?

NSRO stands for Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization. Standard & Poor’s was one of only three such designated organizations before and during the financial crisis of 2007. This exclusive, lucrative, and powerful club was created by the federal Securities Exchange Commission in 1975. Thus, the federal government eliminated competition between credit rating agencies and practically forced financial market participants to use the services of the three big agencies.

According to Wikipedia: “The idea is that banks and other financial institutions should not need to keep in reserve the same amount of capital to protect the institution (against, for example, a run on the bank) if the financial institution is heavily invested in highly liquid and very "safe" securities, such as U.S. government bonds or commercial paper from very stable companies.”

Had the federal government continued to require banks to hold more reserves proportional to their risk taking instead of relying on an government created oligopoly to rate such risks for fees, we would have been spared of such a deep financial crisis.

Who Knows About The Secondary Mortgage Market Enhancement Act

According to Wikipedia: “The Secondary Mortgage Market Enhancement Act of 1984 (SMMEA) was an Act of Congress intended to improve the marketability of private label mortgage-backed security passthroughs.

It declared nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) AA-rated mortgage-backed securities to be legal investments equivalent to Treasury securities and other federal government bonds for federally chartered banks (such as federal savings banks, federal savings associations, etc.), state-chartered financial institutions (such as depository banks and insurance companies) unless overridden by state law before October 1991 (of which 21 states did so), and Department of Labor-regulated pension funds.”

The sponsor of this Act of economic illiteracy was a Republican and it was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. 

This notion that mortgages are as save as Treasury securities and by implication that Treasury securities are safe has been a misconception since ancient times. There simply never was any secure government issued money or securities.  Big government ideas/propaganda leading up to the sovereign debt crisis of 2010.

Who Are The Real Culprits Of The Financial Crisis Of 2007?

There is no doubt that the federal government, the Federal Reserve Bank, and key members of the US Congress are the ones who need to be indicted not Standard & Poor’s. People like Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Franklin Raines, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and others of this ilk should be indicted. There is actually overwhelming evidence that a massive government failure is to blame for the occurrence and severity of this housing bust.

In their relentless pursuit of affordable housing for everyone no matter their financial situation; their utter disregard for reasonable and enforced lending standards; the dominance of government run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; and fueled by basically zero interest rates, these government officials and legislators caused the financial crisis. Contributions by private businesses are pale compared to this.

Don’t believe democratic elections are a substitute for indicting the federal government, the Fed, and key members of the US Congress. These three culprits have brought to bear all their means at their disposal to scapegoat others and stirring up emotions against greedy businesses etc.

Kudos To McGraw Hill

Finally, executives of a US company have enough guts to stand up to these federal blackmailers and their state attorney racketeers who according to media reports tried to extort $1 billion from this company in an attempt to force a settlement. State attorneys are always on standby when large amounts of money can be squeezed out of a private business.