CFTC-regulated firms are not making short-term profits. Numerous futures commission merchants ("FCMs") have shut their doors already, which means their numbers have decreased significantly. The situation conjures John Maynard Keynes' famous quote: "In the long run, we are all dead" (or in the case of FCMs, shuttered).

Additionally, Commissioner Bowen's notion that the DOL's fiduciary standards are a model for the "standardization" of rules across regulatory agencies is arguable. One…

The questions raised by the SEC's approval of IEX's application are these: (i) how extensively should market rules be standardized, and regulations govern, where a trade is directed or executed, (ii) should investors and brokers be given more freedom to ignore disfavored markets, and (iii) how much latitude should markets have to make their own rules? Perhaps these questions should be answered before everyone is forced to comply with the requirements of Regulation NMS.

A…

The Senator from Oregon boasts that his tax proposal will benefit an energy company based in his home state. While it is possible that tax subsidies that benefit a legislator's state, district or constituents are also good for the nation, such specific tax subsidies raise broad public policy questions. They also reflect some of the forces at play in the debate.

The economy is a seamless web. This is not to say that all regulation is bad, but it is to say that the costs of regulation (good regulation, bad regulation, and punitive regulation) are inherently spread throughout the economy, not confined to the particular sector on which the regulation is directly imposed. The results of this survey demonstrate that the political rhetoric asserting that punishing Wall Street will help Main Street is nonsense.