Justice Brandeis wrote “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” He championed creating the SEC after the 1929 crash. Now, SEC is doing its work in secrecy. Read this @bettermarkets.bsky.social brief: bettermarkets.substack.com/p/the-secret...

I wrote a new piece outlining how SEC leadership is using “staff” statements and novel legal maneuvers to avoid the APA, a critical public transparency law. It’s a way to deliver for the financial services industry while avoiding scrutiny of skeptics and public interest advocates.

Important explanation by @bettermarkets.bsky.social of how the crypto industry is reusing the same bogus “technological advancement” hype that Citigroup circa 1999 to gut key financial market protections. Past is prologue. We should heed its lessons: bettermarkets.org/wp-content/u...

While the CFPB is closed for business when it comes to helping Americans fight financial scams, they are hard at work rewriting rules to benefit subprime auto lenders. (quick thread)

Paul Benda of the American Bankers Association calls for more regulation of data brokers to combat fraud and scams. That’s strange… When the CFPB proposed just that, ABA opposed it. www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/new... www.aba.com/advocacy/pol...

Over on the other site, Bill Ackman is urging Eric Adams to bet on Cuomo’s chances of winning the NYC election & then drop out & cash in his bet once Cuomo’s odds inevitably rise. Ackman is also declaring this scheme legal when in fact it very much not.

Question: did the White House vet this guy and like what they saw or were they too lazy to vet him?

An entire dissertation could be written about the visual accompanying this senate campaign announcement. The men foregrounded and centered when *she* is the candidate is really communicating a lot without saying anything.

Trump musing that an appointee maybe did something maybe wrong unrelated to her job is not grounds for firing. She should fight it. In the meantime, Wall Street should be freaking out.

Trump and FHFA Director Pulte have launched a smear campaign against Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Setting aside the many offensive things about this post, the central image is also not Cook. It is an unflattering photo of a different Black woman that is not a Fed Governor.

In 2021 when I was listening to @bft.wtf and @cascoinfoundation.org talk about the crazy history of Tether it would end up being the best prep for understanding influence peddling in the second Trump Admin

Our Policy Director & COO @amandalfischer.bsky.social spoke with @cnn.com about the GENIUS Act, stablecoins, and potential risks to investors. www.cnn.com/2025/08/18/b...

Grateful to talk about crypto risks on CBS. Check it out.

Every time I hear someone talk about Web 3.0 or AI or whatever, I just want to scream "fix wireless printers, fix cell phones." Stop inventing new things until this is solved.

For the life of me I can't find it, but there was this conservative pre-COVID essay about DC devolving into an unlivable hellscape & two of the data points were the increasing presence of chicken bones on Barrack's Row & the way that "High Tea" at DC hotels had become too casual

The SEC's latest crypto giveaway is to bless the same type of rehypothecation that cratered Lehman Brothers - only in crypto it's worse because you can do it without any SEC or Fed oversight. So what's going on? (thread) www.sec.gov/newsroom/spe...

As Congress debates crypto giveaways @repmaxinewaters.bsky.social points out that, “we are supporting the same billionaires that just got massive tax cuts and sponsored Trump’s Stalinist military parade.”

Our @amandalfischer.bsky.social spoke with @reuters.com about how DOGE involvement in SEC rulemaking raises serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest and political influence overriding staff expertise. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...

Allowing Amazon & Walmart to issue stablecoins will be disastrous, says @amandalfischer.bsky.social‬. More market power. New forms of too-big-to-fail. Sellers & suppliers forced to use a private currency with fees. Plus, more of our capital channeled to speculation, rather than loans for real stuff.

Our Policy Director & COO @amandalfischer.bsky.social pointed out for @cnbc.com that the GENIUS Act ignores “the susceptibility of stablecoin companies to runs, bankruptcies, and taxpayer-funded bailouts.” www.cnbc.com/2025/06/21/h...

A federal judge rejects the Trump Administration’s efforts to abandon the #CFPB's redlining settlement with Townstone Financial Inc. This is a huge victory protecting against attempts to rollback critical civil rights and fair lending protections. nationalfairhousing.org/judge-reject...

We are in the dumbest timeline

I had a chance to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on the new crypto market structure legislation. Spoiler alert: it’s bad. A few observations with my testimony linked below. 1. No one is talking about how we are about to have ONE CFTC commissioner & an all GOP SEC.

Sound familiar? Brooksley Born in the late 90s heroically tried to regulate financial derivatives using existing legal authority but got smashed by a powerful lobby who argued that the tech was novel & Congress needed to pass new law to let innovation flourish Now Born is speaking out on crypto

I spoke to the @Financialtimes.com about the obvious but unspoken truth on stablecoins: the product is clearly violative of Glass-Steagall, which predicted the exact problem of firms that are not banks doing bank stuff and made it illegal.

Things in the crypto industry are going great when Omarosa is on TV talking about corruption and how the Trump Administration is exposing consumers to fraud

Shoutout to the city of DC for all the Pride flags on lamp polls around the White House

Special shout to Rep. Richie Torres, who scolded the SEC for not suing Binance fast enough when Binance competitors wrote talking points for him, but who has gone silent now that the case is dropped.

An absolute corrupt miscarriage from an agency that is disgracing its storied reputation. Everyone involved - from the Commissioners to Binance to every lawmaker that scolded the SEC that we didn’t sue them fast enough - should hang their heads in shame.

On @weeknightmsnbc.bsky.social, @amandalfischer.bsky.social says despite the $200mm the crypto industry poured into the 2024 elections, their ads didn’t even mention crypto! @mjsdc.bsky.social reminds us of SCOTUS’ role in co-signing dark money in campaigns www.msnbc.com/the-weeknigh...

I was invited on @weeknightmsnbc.bsky.social to talk about JD Vance’s speech at Bitcoin2025 and how the Trump Administration is systematically gutting rules that protect consumers and our economy from crypto risk www.msnbc.com/the-weeknigh...

Over on the other site they are giving advice on how not to get hacked, drugged or kidnapped at the big annual crypto conference. Normal!

New Federal Reserve survey data just dropped & notwithstanding claims of the “rise of the crypto voter” usage remains flat. Almost like it’s a niche product and not the top issue on voters’ minds…

This is honestly so funny. Trump is saying he will privatize the profits of Fannie & Freddie to shareholders but don’t worry we will socialize the potential losses & everyone will know this implicitly.

I’m tired of posting about crypto here’s my dog

I’d like to offer a sincere apology to the partners and spouses of crypto critics across the United States.

Some of my favorite crypto hypocrisies from when I was at the SEC: 1. Lawmakers yelled at us for not suing Binance fast enough and have since gone absolutely silent since Trump got in business with CZ

By the way, I cannot prove but am fairly confident that there was an industry-funded astroturf bot campaign to blame the SEC for FTX even as that same industry rejected the SEC’s authority to regulate crypto at all.

Mark I beg of you: for the SEC to regulate a thing a securities offering must be involved and the industry did/does not believe - and has litigated against - the very threshold proposition that the SEC has jurisdiction.

Before I left the SEC we spent an hour on the phone trying to explain securities law to Mark and folks, it’s bad.

Meanwhile on the other site, crypto lobbyists are cheering that their tornado of election cash worked as intended and steered votes

I wrote a piece about the Coinbase hack and how customers would likely be way better off if Coinbase had registered as a broker (as the previous SEC endeavored to do) bettermarkets.substack.com/p/hacked-why...

The crypto corruption taking place in DC makes subprime look like a Boy Scout picnic.

Our @amandalfischer.bsky.social spoke to @economist.com about the crypto industry's influence in DC: "It’s the most brute force display of money and power in the legislature I have ever seen." www.economist.com/briefing/202...

"Trump's doing crime and I'm doing a stablecoin bill" is not the strong statement Gillibrand thinks it is. She's a lawyer - would she call these high crimes or misdemeanors? @kirstengillibrand.bsky.social

The CFPB is currently held together by a district court order and vibes. Plenty of laws already exist that say they need to do stuff and that hasn’t stopped Trump from gutting the place. The Bureau was one of the Democrats’ proudest legislative achievements in history and this bill mocks that.

I’m a broken record on this but the reason crypto didn’t register is not because the forms are complicated or a bad fit or whatever. The SEC can iterate disclosures easily on a bespoke basis. (1/2)

In which I argue that tokenization is Crystal Pepsi

Paul Atkins of the SEC argues that crypto investors don’t need extraneous information like…payments to company executives or…how the project will use investor proceeds to build stuff

Why are the Democrats greenlighting Trump’s crypto plans? My op-ed in The Guardian - hopefully Gillibrand and co. will realize there's nothing left to negotiate over. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...