The "Legal Assault" on the SEC

As Supreme Court decisions loom, a legal assault is weakening SEC’s power

A legal assault on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is chipping away at its powers to oversee Wall Street and is likely to intensify with two imminent Supreme Court rulings.

A U.S. appeals court last week overturned a major SEC rule imposing stricter oversight of private funds, in a fresh blow for Democratic Chair Gary Gensler’s ambitious agenda to boost transparency and stamp out conflicts of interest on Wall Street.

The ruling from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is another example of how business groups are using conservative-leaning courts to overturn SEC rules, limit its ability to write similar ones and bring enforcement actions.

While the conservative “war on the administrative state” aims to weaken federal agencies across the board, Gensler’s ambitious agenda has made the SEC, which oversees around 40,000 entities, a top target.

In Defense of Meme Coins

I don’t necessarily think meme coins should be celebrated, particularly not for the reasons most often given. At this point in the cycle, it’s clear tokens – even “blue chips” like shiba inu (SHIB) or dogwifhat (WIF) – aren’t really bringing in new adopters; at least not yet. I think it’s dubious to suggest that the “communities” that form around investing in meme coins are at all long term sustainable. And it’s, of course, irresponsible to suggest these tokens are creating “generational wealth” for people.

Meme coins are what they are: highly speculative investment vehicles. That there appears to be a near endless amount of interest and capital to plow into them essentially proves that “speculation is a use case,” no matter whether you agree with the sentiment there.

Autodesk Faces SEC, DOJ Scrutiny After Internal Accounting Probe

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are probing Autodesk Inc. after the software maker reassigned its chief financial officer following an internal investigation into the company’s accounting practices.

“The Company intends to cooperate with the SEC’s investigation,” Autodesk disclosed in a 10-K filed Monday afternoon. In addition, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California contacted the company regarding its internal investigation, the company said in the annual report, noting it will also cooperate with that probe.

Roaring Kitty

I tell you what: If I could make the price of a publicly traded stock double just by tweeting a cartoon of a guy leaning forward in a chair, and if I could make hundreds of millions of dollars of essentially risk-free instant profits by buying loads of call options on the stock before tweeting that cartoon, I would:

1. Do that, and

2. Not then go around publicly discussing, on YouTube, at great length, my fundamental case for why the stock is undervalued.

Right? For at least three reasons.

1. I would already have the hundreds of millions of dollars. I would like to think that a single $300 million score would be plenty for me.

2. Posting a picture of a guy in a chair on X (formerly Twitter) is probably — not legal advice! — not going to get me into any legal trouble. I am not making any factual representations about the company, the stock, my position, my future plans, anything; it’s just a picture of a guy with a headband. Whereas if I go on YouTube and talk in detail about why I like the stock, what I think of the company’s strategy, my current holdings, my plans for the future, etc., then I am saying a bunch of stuff that could be wrong, or could mislead someone, or could give someone some argument that they were misled, etc. Every factual statement is a risk; the cartoon is a minimal risk….

The Gensler SEC Loses Again

Talk about a rough few days for the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last Wednesday blocked its private-fund disclosure rule. And the agency announced it is closing a regional office after getting sanctioned by a federal judge.

Unsatisfied with his day job, Chairman Gary Gensler has been seeking to expand the agency’s power over America’s growing private markets. Over the past decade, the number of private funds has tripled while their value has grown to $26.6 trillion from $9.8 trillion. Government pension funds chasing higher returns are among their biggest investors. Mr. Gensler wants a regulatory piece of this action, though Congress has never given him the power.

California pension fund opposes ‘ridiculous’ Elon Musk pay package at Tesla

The head of a massive California pension fund told CNBC on Monday that he is voting against the revised pay package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The vote this week is to effectively reinstate a 2018 pay package that was struck down by a judge in January. California State Teachers’ Retirement System Chief Investment Officer Chris Ailman said the fund opposed the pay package previously and will do so again.“

We’ll pay him 140-times the average worker pay. How about that deal? I think that’s more than fair. This pay package is ridiculous,” Ailman said on “Squawk on the Street.”