Abolishing the SEC: What It Means for Wall Street

The SEC is “an independent agency whose primary purpose is to enforce the law against market manipulation.”

Market manipulation is “conduct designed to deceive investors by artificially affecting the price of securities.”

The SEC was created in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash.

And who better to be its first chairman than arguably the greatest market manipulator of all time?

Joesph P. Kennedy Sr.

As chairman, he oversaw corporate financial disclosures, investigated investors, and propagandized Wall Street’s newfound safety, therefore, helping Wall Street regain its losses.

But I think we now have more than enough evidence to justify abolishing the SEC than had ever existed to justify creating it in the first place…

Abolishing the SEC would save taxpayers money.

The SEC’s 2023 budget is about $2 billion (Biden requested $2.4 billion).

It’d reduce regulatory costs.

The SEC’s regulations have increased significantly over time with major rules adopted every year that increase market uncertainty/volatility. As of 2021, SEC regulations are over 2,300 pages.

Large financial firms report that the average cost to maintain regulatory compliance is $10,000 per employee.

Since the passage of Dodd-Frank virtually no new banks have opened in the United States.

By abolishing SEC regulations we’d be lowering barriers to entry into the financial sector therefore increasing competition.

With greater competition comes lower costs.

If more stock exchanges popped up, smaller companies could afford to be publicly traded.

This decentralization of power from Wall Street would therefore increase the overall quality of the free market as…