The CFTC Just Wrote the Line Between a Market and a House
The CFTC proposed that event contracts are swaps and excluded casino-style gambling. The dividing line is who sets the price.
The SEC Wants to Let Bond Funds Skip the Dealer Toll Booth
The SEC proposed to let bond funds trade with sister funds again, skipping the dealer. The estimated saving is $173 million a year. The fine print on pricing and public data is where the real story sits.
The EPA Is Days From Killing Its Own Methane Leak Watchdog
Zeldin's Santa Fe announcement names the programs that will not survive the second-part rollback: the Super Emitter Program, marginal well standards, and the $45 billion claim that frames them.
Congress Stalled, So the CFTC Started Writing the Crypto Rulebook
The CFTC's 109-page ANPRM builds the exchange framework the Clarity Act would have mandated, using authority it has held since 2010 without ever writing rules under it.
The SEC Just Detached Its Post-Madoff Audit Backstop
The 760-page crypto custody proposal rebuilds who can hold crypto assets. It also quietly removes the PCAOB gate on custody-rule accountants, a screen installed after Madoff.
The Treasury Just Killed Its Two Biggest Crypto Surveillance Rules
FinCEN withdrew the unhosted wallet reporting rule after six years of limbo and the Section 311 mixing designation with it. The gates stay open wider, the surveillance towers stay unmanned, and the BSA skeleton still stands.
The SEC Just Proposed Six New Ways Around the Wealth Test
CPA, CFA, CFP, Series 79, Series 86/87, and a new FINRA exam: the knowledge test is quietly replacing the money test, and a companion proposal opens the performance fee door too.
The FCC Just Erased a Cap Congress Wrote Into Law
The 39 percent national TV ownership cap died quietly on a Thursday, 55 days after the vote that killed it.
Two Circuits Just Disagreed About What a Swap Is. The Prediction Market Is 1-For-3.
The Sixth Circuit narrowed the CEA swap definition and let Ohio and Tennessee regulate Kalshi's sports contracts. The Third Circuit said the opposite. The circuit split now points at the Supreme Court.
The Treasury Just Opened 60 Million Investment Accounts in One Day
Automatic enrollment completed October 1: every eligible child under 18 now has a Trump Account. The only number that matters now is the claim rate on 60 million passive accounts.
The FCC Just Freed a Gigahertz and Rewrote Its Own Environmental Footprint
The September 30 vote opened 1,000+ MHz for satellite broadband and removed FCC NEPA review from spacecraft operations, spectrum authorizations and earth stations. Same meeting, same bottleneck.
The FDIC Just Closed a 30-Year Gap in Interstate Banking. Digital Banks Were the Reason.
The FDIC's state bank parity proposal extends national-bank preemption to state-chartered banks across state lines, with or without a branch. The no-branch clause is the load-bearing wall.