Sky Blog
For the month when Paul Atkins was sworn in as SEC Chairman, we examine:
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, particularly large language models, are quickly becoming integral to financial advising. Recent evidence, however, demonstrates that they can act against investors’ interests. In a 2023 experiment,researchers deployed GPT‑4 as an autonomous trading agent and found that …
Chairman Hagerty, Ranking Member Reed, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today.[1]
I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our important mission on behalf of our
Channeling the old adage of “fake it ‘till you make it,” today’s statement from the Division of Corporation Finance declares that “protocol staking” – locking up crypto tokens in a blockchain protocol to earn rewards – does not involve an …
The private credit market has undergone a remarkable expansion, with assets under management (AUM) growing from approximately $42 billion in 2000 to over $1.7 trillion by 2023.[1]
Like many transformative asset classes, private credit appears to be following a …
Controlled companies – public firms where an individual, group, or another company holds majority voting power – make up a significant and growing share of the U.S. public market, accounting for over $2.2 trillion in 2019 alone. Despite their scale, …
In the world of legislative decision-making, one truth holds: U.S. legislators are heavily motivated by re-election. To win votes, they must understand and serve the economic interests of their constituents. This dynamic raises an intriguing question: How do members of …
Chairman Joyce, Ranking Member Hoyer, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today.[1]
I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the SEC, including our important mission on behalf of our fellow citizens, investors, …
In a new essay, I compare a judicial revolution that is happening with one that is not. Both the change and the status quo are being managed by the current Supreme Court. , When it comes to administrative law, the …
In order to keep the compliance folks here at the SEC happy, I must first note that the views I express here today are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the full Commission or of my fellow …
Last year, an asset manager with offices in New York, Texas, and Vermont was publicly censured by the Securities and Exchange Commission and ordered to pay a substantial fine. Its offense? The asset manager hired an individual who had previously …
We write in opposition to the hasty and opaque efforts underway to abolish the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the nonprofit organization that oversees audits of public companies and SEC-registered brokers and dealers in the United States, currently overseen …
The topic of this afternoon’s discussion is timely as securities are increasingly migrating from traditional (or “off-chain”) databases to blockchain-based (or “on-chain”) ledger systems.[1]
President Trump signed on February 10 an executive order (the “Executive Order”)[1] directing the U.S. Attorney General over the next 180 days to (i) review the guidelines and policies governing investigations and enforcement actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices …
On April 25, 2025, the SEC Staff issued two new Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C+DIs) with respect to Rule 10b5-1. Under the first (Qu. 120.32), the Staff advised that purchases and sales of issuer securities pursuant to a …
Welcome to the penultimate day of the SEC’s 31st International Institute for Securities Market Growth and Development. Before I begin, as I am sure you anticipate based on what you have heard from many SEC speakers this week, my …
In April 2025, the landscape of U.S. crypto regulation shifted significantly. Three of the country’s principal bank regulators – the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – jointly …
Good morning. Today is the sixth-year anniversary of the first-ever meeting of the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee.[1] Since that initial meeting, I have followed the discussions and recommendations by this Committee from outside the agency. Now it …
Corporations play an increasingly active role in lobbying, with a growing focus on influencing government rulemaking. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, corporate lobbying expenditures at the federal level reached a record $3.7 billion in 2024, accounting for 86.3 …
Whose interests do public pension funds serve? On the one hand, they have a fiduciary duty to maximize value for the pension fund participants whose retirement savings they invest. On the other, they can use their considerable ownership stakes to …