Chair Massad's priorities might be best considered in light of  that the CFTC and the EU finally, finally, finally, reached an agreement about the treatment of clearinghouses in their respective jurisdictions. That is, a substantial portion of the CFTC's priorities reflect the need to reduce the overreach of the prior CFTC administration (which the current Chair refers to either as "fine-tuning" or "helping end users") and correct procedural problems with the ways in…

Given their expanded responsibilities, there is no doubt that the federal financial regulatory agencies are poorly funded. The dispute over funding levels reflects ongoing tension between public policy and politics. How many of the current regulatory obligations are divorced from policy entirely? How much of the dispute is about good regulation and how much is devoted to the business of collecting fines?

It is difficult to understate the peculiarity of the notion contained in the…

Whenever FINRA issues a warning about a particular type of investment, it is signaling to firms that they should review their sales practices concerning that product and to be sure that those practices are appropriate.

The irony of is that it comes at a time when the CFTC itself is being challenged for, in this instance, accounting misconduct. This is not to suggest there has been any material wrongdoing by the CFTC, though in light of the current enforcement culture, it does not seem to matter whether a failure is material or intentional. Current enforcement culture seems to be: however harsh the penalty might be, it cannot be harsh enough.