That the SEC went ahead with approving this product may reflect a shift in policy from the SEC acting as a gatekeeper shutting out new products that it might deem inappropriately risky, to determining that investors should decide the products in which they invest, subject to appropriate disclosures. The latter policy is consistent with the historical mission of the SEC, which is to allow investors to make investment decisions, subject to appropriate disclosure. Of course, this also ups the…

What is interesting about this publication is that it would seem to have no readership. There are virtually no new banks. See Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, ""; see also George Sutton, "" (American Banker). Thus, the really significant question is not how does one start a new bank, but, rather, why does no one want to do so?

CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo is a critic of certain aspects of Regulation AT, . It seems unlikely that the Regulation will go effective as currently proposed.

Mr. Dudley notes that the profitability of banks has dropped in light of their reduced leverage, but he asserts that they remain "profitable enough to cover their cost of capital." What makes this remark particularly notable is the  who claimed that (i) banks' return on equity was low because they were too highly leveraged (a completely counterintuitive assertion that Mr. Hoenig did not fully explain) and (ii) that banks were less profitable than essentially every other industry…