According to Secretary Perez, the DOL's proposed rule is nothing more than "common sense." But rules that are based on mere common sense do not take hundreds of pages to explain, nor do they cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. Still, the fact of the rule's complexity does not mean that it is inherently flawed, even if there is a great deal of opinion to that effect. It does mean that a meaningful defense of the law should be based on real economic analysis.

Secretary…

Mr. Donohue's advice to CCOs was not comforting. CCOs must hope that Mr. Donohue's list of their duties was intended to be aspirational because the tasks he described were daunting: knowing and keeping up with potentially multiple bodies of fast-changing laws in many jurisdictions, having a complete understanding of firms' businesses and products, mastering firms' technologies, and being a determinative force in establishing their culture - all this in addition to expecting CCOs to implement…

 At this point, firms should be well aware that the SEC has strong procedures for tracking Regulation M violations and is aggressive in imposing fines.

The new rules are less burdensome than those that were proposed originally.