Commissioner Uyeda is absolutely right that the regulation of research should be revisited. Good investment research is fundamental to rational investment. The SEC has for a long time operated under a regulatory scheme that treats investment research as inherently suspect. That scheme limits substantially the ability of firms to profit from their production of such research, thereby discouraging the production.

The premise of Commissioner Johnson's remarks seems to be that there are changes in our economy or technology that make the current state of regulation inadequate. But the failures of the various banks were quite old-fashioned: A fast and large rise in inflation wiped out much of the value of the holdings of securities and also made it more expensive for them to maintain deposits; the banks had very poor risk management in that they not only borrowed short and loaned long, their short…

Senator Warren might want to propose a study (by "neutral" observers, if such persons exist) on whether Dodd-Frank has been a success. It was entirely predictable that the large regulatory costs imposed by Dodd-Frank would hurt small banks more, as they have less ability to spread costs, and thus favor the largest banks. Notably, consolidation is not confined to the banking industry: the number of broker-dealers and FCMs has also declined.

This is not to say that regulatory costs…

The issues raised by the Senators on the application of the Federal Power Act to index funds' activities overlap with securities law: What does it mean to be "passive"?  SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce previously that advisers to index funds should not actively vote those shares, but should instead vote along with management. There may be other solutions as well, (see  suggesting passive investors vote pro rata with all other investors). The Commissioner's proposal would seem to be…