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Congressmembers Tried to Stop the SEC’s Inquiry into FTX

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101–110 of 115 posts

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

#101
post #3

Let's not Friday (Holiday) News Dump this possible story. If there's something to it, next week people will have more time to look into it, without it spoiling their turkey appetite.

Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving

If the topic is a US domestic matter, most of the people who need to pay attention do.

This idea that having accurate information about things happening on the opposite side of the world is going to change anything? You don't have to think about it for more than two seconds to see that's not true. It's an Illusion of Control.

Exposing something is only the first step do changing it. But you can expose things and not change a damn thing.

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

#104
post #52

"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 sof…

>”The crypto crowd has been yammering for years "but this is different". Well, it's not.” In what way? Some cryptocurrencies have been declared securities, while many have not. Those such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have been around for long enough that if they were going to be ruled as securities via Howey, that would have surely been done by now.

That was done years ago. The SEC cracked down on initial coin offerings back in 2018. They're still working down the backlog.[1] The "cyber" enforcement staff was doubled a few months back to catch up.

The SEC does not consider Bitcoin to be a security because there's no "common enterprise". It's distributed more like a mined commodity. Miners are competitors. But where there's an issuer, or "minting", or "pre-mining", or anything like that, you can buy it, and it's expected to go up, it's clearly a security.

Etherium is in an interesting position with the shift to proof of stake. That may have made it a security, because it's now controlled by voting owners, just like a stock. So now there's a "common enterprise", unlike in the "mining" phase.

The big question now is exchange regulation. Are Bitcoin exchanges and brokers going to have to register with the SEC, pay for and be covered by SIPC insurance, and be regulated by FINRA? After FTX, that's probably coming. FTX acted like a retail broker, after all. Nobody runs Super Bowl ads or buys stadium naming rights for something sold only to institutional clients.

The law in this area looks at the economic realities, not the form. If it looks like a security, is marketed like a security, and is bought and sold for the same reasons as securities, it's a security. Doesn't matter what you call it.

[1] https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/cybersecurity-enforcement-acti...

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

#105

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-...

Very glad to see that in the US political divisions can still be overcome and there can be a bipartisan effort to allow criminals to hide from the scrutiny of the SEC.

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

#106
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If they punished them, especially in a way that would cause then not be funded in their next election, they could just switch parties.

Which would make the party that expels them look good, and the party that takes them and their funding on board look bad.

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

#107
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That would be ideal but in reality these party members raised money for the party so.. they’re in 0 trouble as far as their party is concerned. The system is a farting contest that enables this behavior. Solution would be to do away with the 2 party system and make parties more responsible with consequences as being completely voted out if corruption isn’t handled. Now both Reps and Dems are corrupted and they known…

Countries like India have multi party system. That doesn’t seem to have slowed corruption/bribery at all. How would it help in the U.S?

In a way, corruption is the U.S is worse because it is legalized (campaign contributions). If there were 25 parties instead of 2, it would be a bit more work to find out who to bribe, but I guess it is still doable

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

#108

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-...

Politicians right and left have no problem with taking a big check to further their own interests.

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

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would smaller government have helped the FTX situation rather than make things like that much more common and worse? What FTX situation? I have not given a cent to FTX, my kids have not given a cent to FTX, nobody I personally know have lost anything with FTX. More regulation (which in this case I don’t need) will cost me money spent to enable and enforce it. Now, exactly what regulations we need to prevent com…

> What FTX situation? I have not given a cent to FTX, my kids have not given a cent to FTX, nobody I personally know have lost anything with FTX. More regulation (which in this case I don’t need) will cost me money spent to enable and enforce it. "Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's…

How much empathy should we have for gamblers in an unregulated casino known to be filled with criminals?

There are so many people in the world more deserving of empathy.

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

#110

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-...

Why do they keep telling us bipartisanship is dead?

because both parties can agree that the B in BIPOC stands for billionaires.
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