By WSJ Editorial Board. October 26, 2022. (Wall Street Journal)
Businesses have been warning that Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s fast-and-furious regulation could cause damage across the economy. Now agency officials and Democratic Senators are raising alarms too.
The SEC Office of Inspector General this month issued a withering review of Mr. Gensler’s leadership that would probably get a CEO of a public company sacked. Agency division managers told the IG that his move-fast-and-break-things agenda is overwhelming staff and taking resources from investor protection.
The number of rule-makings on the SEC agenda increased by nearly two-thirds between spring 2017 and 2022. In the first eight months of 2022, the SEC proposed 26 new rules, twice as many as in 2020 and 2021. Unlike predecessor Jay Clayton’s rules that focused on investor protection, Mr. Gensler is sprinting to impose new burdens on business in line with the progressive desire to achieve via regulation that Democrats can’t get through Congress. Investor protection is an afterthought.