SEC Issues New Policy on Mandatory Arbitration to "Make IPOs Great Again"

US SEC hands victory to IPO issuers who want to avoid class-action lawsuits

The U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday said it would allow companies seeking to go public to require that investors resolve claims of fraud or other false statements through arbitration rather than court litigation, handing a victory to companies and weakening investor rights.

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-1 along party lines to reverse a long-standing but unwritten SEC policy in which the agency blocked the Wall Street debuts of companies that want to ban shareholder class action lawsuits in their charters and bylaws.

“The commission is not a merit regulator that decides whether a company’s particular method of resolving disputes with its shareholders is good or bad,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins said at a public meeting. The SEC issued a policy statement, rather than a formal rule, meaning it is not subject to public notice and comment.

How an Enron Parody Turned Into a Financial Mess of Its Own

If anyone wondered whether this was satire, the identity of the would-be nuclear energy entrepreneur, Connor Gaydos, left little doubt. In 2017, Gaydos helped create Birds Aren’t Real, an absurdist performance art project that satirized conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon. Gaydos and his co-founder, Peter McIndoe, financed the project by selling T-shirts that warned “If It Flies, It Spies” and “Birdwatching Goes Both Ways.” I own one of these items, along with a Birds Aren’t Real sticker on my laptop that never fails to get a laugh at airport security.

The difference between Birds Aren’t Real and Enron is that Enron goes way further to commit to the bit. At the same time Gaydos was promoting his “nuclear reactor” on social media, Enron filed a real application with the Public Utility Commission of Texas to sell electricity—essentially attempting to turn the satirical energy company into a real one. That was followed by allegations of actual financial chicanery and investor losses. The deeper I got into the reporting of this story, the harder it became to discern satire from reality, and I started to wonder if anyone besides Gaydos knew exactly where that line was.

Private equity wants your money. No, it needs your money.

On Aug. 7, President Donald Trump issued a directive that is supposed to make us all richer. The goal is to make it easier for “alternative assets” like private equity to be included in 401(k) and other retirement plans. […]

If you took this at face value, you might indeed think that an immense favor has finally been granted to you. But actually, it’s a ruse of sorts, one that is extremely convenient, even necessary, to the entire Wall Street ecosystem. It’s debatable whether you need private equity. But it is absolutely clear that private equity needs you — or rather, the trillions of dollars Americans have in our retirement accounts. Without our money, the industry is slamming into a brick wall of its own making. “I would joke with friends that when I see them going after 401(k)s, we’ll know it’s over,” said Nate Koppikar, who used to work in private equity before launching his own hedge fund. “And they’re going after 401(k)s.”

Fmr. SEC chair Gary Gensler: Markets will be volatile if companies only report earnings twice a year

Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler expressed concerns about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to prioritize President Trump’s push to end quarterly reports, suggesting the change could increase market volatility and reduce transparency.

During an interview with CNBC, Gensler, who served between 2021 and 2025 with President Joe Biden’s administration, emphasized that quarterly reporting has been effective for 55 years and has contributed to the strength of U.S. capital markets.

“If we go to only twice a year instead of four times a year reporting, the markets will be a bit more volatile. It will be harder to understand what’s happening in the markets,” Gensler said, pushing back against arguments that quarterly reporting prevents long-term thinking.

He acknowledged the costs associated with corporate disclosure but maintained that transparency creates “a big public good” that helps the economy function better.

Apollo Explores Sale of Internet Pioneer AOL

Apollo Global Management is exploring a sale of early internet darling AOL after receiving inbound interest in the business, according to people familiar with the matter.

Any deal could value AOL at around $1.5 billion, the people said. It is also possible the talks won’t result in any deal, they cautioned.

Apollo bought AOL in 2021 as part of a $5 billion deal to acquire that business and Yahoo from Verizon.

AOL generates around $400 million in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the people familiar with the matter said. Its main business lines include software for internet privacy and protection, and the AOL. com website and email domain.

Dogecoin ETF to Launch as First US Fund to Hold Asset With ‘No Utility’

A first-of-its-kind Dogecoin exchange-traded fund is set to hit U.S. markets on Thursday, with Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas flagging the Rex-Osprey Doge ETF (ticker: DOJE) as the launch vehicle.

“Pretty sure this is first-ever U.S. ETF to hold something that has no utility on purpose,” Balchunas tweeted Tuesday, announcing the fund’s debut.

Crypto Bros Turn Charlie Kirk’s Death Into a Memecoin

Evan Rademaker was sitting in his office in Tampa, Florida, on Sept. 10 when he heard the news of Charlie Kirk’s shooting. The first thing he did was check his social media feed on X to follow the developing story. The second thing he did was check the memecoin market.

Often when there’s a major news event, Rademaker, a 30-year-old executive at a solar panel company, looks to see which new tokens are appearing on Pump. fun, a website where crypto enthusiasts launch, trade and discuss memecoins. The site serves as a kind of news feed, as users create and promote tokens pegged to whatever person or event happens to be drawing attention that day.

Minutes after Kirk was shot, tokens associated with him started to appear: “Pray For Kirk Coin,” “DEAD KIRK” and “Charlie Kirk’s dog,” among dozens of others. While many of the coins’ creators pitched the tokens as memorials to Kirk or sources of charity for his family, each was fundamentally an attempt to turn Kirk’s death into profit.