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Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

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Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#51

Post by kodah »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #34
tsol wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about democracy is, even if the people make a bad choice it's still democracy

From "Teller Reveals His Secrets" ( https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/teller-reveals-h... )... "7. If you are given a choice, you believe you have acted freely. [...] When I cut the cards, I let you glimpse a few different faces. You conclude the deck contains 52 different cards (No. 1—Pattern recognition). You think you’ve made a choice, just as when you choose between two candidates preselected by entrenc…

> Add an option for "None of the above/Do-over" and I'll have more faith in democracy.

I would really love this and to end PACs.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#52

Post by Animats »

"Enforcement powers, while conceptually broader with respect to non-SEC regulated entities, are still circumscribed by statute, federal judicial review, congressional oversight and the Commission’s own policies and procedures for initiating and conducting inquiries and investigations."

Now that's being squishy-soft on crime. That's the point to make when those members of Congress come up for re-election. They're soft on crime.

The basic law the SEC enforces, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, is pretty clear on what's a security. The Supreme Court has clarified that. Investment of money, expectation of profit, common enterprise - it's a security. That's called the Howey Test. It's also been established that what you call it or how it works doesn't matter. There have been, over the years, many imaginative schemes cooked up to get around this. The Howey case involved tradeable orange grove harvesting rights in Florida. That was held to be a security.

The crypto crowd has been yammering for years "but this is different". Well, it's not.

The scams around crypto are classic. It's usually insiders stealing the money. The crashes are also classic. It's someone being over-leveraged when something goes down. This is not financial innovation.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#54

Post by koolba »

fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #32
koolba wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both the House and the Senate make their own rules, and that includes the ability to unseat a member. If they really wanted to, they could (but they won’t).

Huh, I’m surprised one party who controlled the House or Senate never decided to just kick out all their opponents, if they are legally allowed to.

It’s an escalating game of chicken. You can see it happening in the new Congress with public statements from the Republican incoming majority leader to remove certain Democrats from committee assignments (e.g. removing Schiff from the intelligence committee).

Not that long ago that was unheard of and either party could seat whoever they’d like in a committee. But similar to how the Democrats killed the executive appointment filibuster, they killed that as well by refusing to seat Republicans on the Jan 6th and removing some from other committees .

Now it’s going to come full circle. I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually gets to unseating or refusing to seat a controversial figure.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#55

Post by rodgerd »

blamazon wrote: post #48
rodgerd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like... they guy running on whether he wants to be a warewolf or vampire? The lady worried about Jewish space lasers? Just getting people who are sufficiently in touch with reality that they're merely corrupt seems like a win at this point.

To be fair, that werewolf or vampire thing was the most cogent part of the campaign so far.

I would like to disagree with you.

I can't, but I'd like to.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#56

Post by smt88 »

qup wrote: post #45
ericbarrett wrote: post #7

The eight congressmen: Tom Emmer (R-MN) Warren Davidson (R-OH) Byron Donalds (R-FL) Ted Budd (R-NC) Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) Ritchie Torres (D-NY) Darren Soto (D-FL) The signed letter: https://emmer.house.gov/_cache/files/0/c/0c7fc863-7916-4b19-...

If one of the Ds or Rs was flipped, we could all condemn the most-guilty party with great conviction.

I don't know anyone with basic knowledge of Congress who doesn't understand that lobbying heavily influences both parties, although not at all equally.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#57

Post by MichaelCollins »

mc32 wrote: post #8
ericbarrett wrote: post #7

The eight congressmen: Tom Emmer (R-MN) Warren Davidson (R-OH) Byron Donalds (R-FL) Ted Budd (R-NC) Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) Ritchie Torres (D-NY) Darren Soto (D-FL) The signed letter: https://emmer.house.gov/_cache/files/0/c/0c7fc863-7916-4b19-...

Their parties should kick them out and replace them with more principled people.

This comment makes no sense in the context of America. I guess you're from a country with some sort of Parliamentary system where governments are formed when a party is elected?

In America, parties aren't elected and don't form governments. Accordingly, an American political party cannot kick out a congressman, much less replace one. To remove a congressman requires a two third vote (from congress, not from a political party); this never happens in the modern era without a criminal conviction as the impetus. And nether congress or a political party can simply bring in a new congressman; you'd need another election for that.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#59

Post by MichaelCollins »

koolba wrote: post #54
fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh, I’m surprised one party who controlled the House or Senate never decided to just kick out all their opponents, if they are legally allowed to.

It’s an escalating game of chicken. You can see it happening in the new Congress with public statements from the Republican incoming majority leader to remove certain Democrats from committee assignments (e.g. removing Schiff from the intelligence committee). Not that long ago that was unheard of and either party could seat whoever they’d like in a committee. But similar to how the Democrats killed the executive appo…

Removing each other from committees is a far cry from kicking each other out of Congress. That has only happened twice since the 19th century, and both times it came after a criminal conviction. Merely being an absolute idiot isn't enough to get a 2/3rds vote to kick out a congressmen because that would be mutually assured destruction; they all know they're all absolute idiots so they don't expel each other out for that.

Also,

> Both the House and the Senate make their own rules,

The rules for expelling congressmen are set in the US Constitution, they don't just make it up as they go. Unless you're talking about their ability to amend the US Constitution, but that's even less likely than kicking these guys out the normal way.

The best way to get them kicked out would be to have them convicted for bribery/corruption, then you might get a 2/3rds vote to expel them.

Re: Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

#60

Post by [deleted] »

smt88 wrote: post #56
qup wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one of the Ds or Rs was flipped, we could all condemn the most-guilty party with great conviction.

I don't know anyone with basic knowledge of Congress who doesn't understand that lobbying heavily influences both parties, although not at all equally.

[deleted]
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