Although Commissioner Piwowar's statement that the DOL Fiduciary Rule is in conflict with the notion of American individualism may seem a little over the top, it, in fact, raises a real big-picture question: can the government and regulators devise a system of disclosure that is sufficient to allow individuals to make decisions for themselves based on the information required to be provided to them, or are most individuals so ill-equipped to make decisions for themselves, at least financial…

Notwithstanding the somewhat exotic nature of the relevant asset (i.e., the virtual currency), the SEC's finding that an asset that represents an ownership interest in a profit-making venture (or that depends on the management expertise of others) is a completely unsurprising result and well within the bounds of existing law.

While this should shorten the registration process somewhat, it does not reduce the burden on firms to produce and maintain compliance procedures. Further, firms will lose whatever benefit they might have received from having the NFA conduct a compliance documentation review and confirm (or at least not deny) the adequacy of their compliance processes.

However Congress and the SEC may come out on the trade-off between corporate regulation and the expense of that regulation, this hearing makes plain that Congress and the regulators are focused on substantive issues such as capital formation and corporate disclosure (and not on questions such as conflict minerals disclosure, as if the SEC had the means to end civil conflicts in Africa). As a result, now that they are focusing on real questions, it seems possible for Congress and…