Chapter 6 Taking Hold of the Wheel
Take care of your car in the garage, and the car will take care of you on the road.
—Amit Kalantri (author, mentalist, and magician), Wealth of Words
Consequences
On Tuesday, November 8, 2016—Election Day—I arrived early as usual at the CFTC headquarters. I greeted Cicero, the cheery security guard at the ground-floor reception desk. Then, gripping my morning copies of The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, I headed to the elevator.
Once inside, I immediately turned to the Journal's lead editorial. It concerned the CFTC's decision the previous Friday, in which I had been outvoted 2–1, to put out Reg AT for public review and comment.1
“Most Americans probably think the ability to issue a subpoena, which compels the production of information, is an awesome power. It is especially awesome for CFTC commissioners who can vote to issue them without seeking a judge's approval or finding probable cause. Mere suspicion of wrongdoing or even puzzling market activity is sufficient. But commission Democrats … think the subpoena power is not enough.
“So [they] voted to propose a new rule that will—without the need for a subpoena—force regulated companies to hand over the algorithms they use to automate financial trades. Few people care what happens to electronic trading firms. But Americans should understand the power about to be transferred to one agency, and consider how quickly others will want the same power.
“The subpoena process provides ...
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