By Roslyn Layton. March 10, 2022. (Forbes)
Investors are looking for leadership from the President on financial innovation; instead they get a word salad of an executive order on consumers, financial stability, national security, and climate risks. The EO is a regulatory pile-on which asserts that ten federal agencies; a cadre of state insurance, banking, and securities regulators; and a smattering of other bureaucrats to protect consumers, investors, and business while ensuring “sufficient oversight and safeguard against any systemic financial risks posed by digital assets.” Consumers and financial innovators have long wanted a coherent, predictable regulatory regime which supports investment and experimentation while providing needed information to the public. Sadly Biden’s order merely punts the issue back to regulators to codify their capricious and abusive overreach.