Secretary Yellen has been fighting an uphill battle, first having to defend President Biden's claim that inflation would be transitory and now arguing that additional spending will decrease inflation. 

In theory, the concept of no-action letters is great.  Having a difficult question, call up the agency staff, and get an answer.

However, as a practical matter, that process is only useful if (i) the agency leadership empowers the staff to make decisions and (ii) the staff is not afraid to give favorable advice.  If the staff can not make provide answers, or will only provide the most burdensome / restrictive answer to every question, then there is no reason for anyone to…

The research paper asks, "How can [central banks] establish credibility for being responsive to climate change when relatively little is known about how it interacts with the real and financial economy?" According to the paper, the answer to this question is that central banks should use "sharper communication with more precise language."

There is an alternative approach to the question posed in the paper; i.e., that the banking regulators should continue to use extremely uncertain…

In December 2020, the SEC on a proposal allowing limited purpose broker-dealers to custody digital asset securities. The proposal was so restrictive as to be unworkable; it would not have allowed the limited purpose broker-dealers to custody cryptocurrencies. The SEC's proposed accounting treatment for the custody of digital assets entirely puts the kibosh to that proposal, as the capital charges associated with the SEC's treatment of custody by a broker-dealer would make it impossibly…