“Imposing deeply flawed regulations on the financial markets amid significant inflation and economic uncertainty is a recipe for disaster,” Garrett Bess wrote in Friday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Bess, vice president of Heritage Action for America, the sister organization of conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, doesn’t think much of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s agenda and specifically the “breakneck speed” with which it’s happening.
The 16 proposals in the first quarter of the year “is more than three times the SEC’s average first-quarter pace since 2000,” he noted.
“Commissioner Hester Peirce recently noted that the SEC’s timetables for finalizing dozens of new rules indicate Mr. Gensler’s plans to rush to completion proposals in which commenters have identified deep flaws,’” Bess added.
He took issue with two proposals in particular that are by now well-known to 401k and financial advisors—the private fund advisers rule and climate-related disclosure requirements.
The former would significantly increase institutional investor reporting requirements, thereby raising costs and lowering returns for clients, including pension funds and the retirees they serve.
Bess argued that the latter would require public companies to “speculate in their financial disclosures about the potential impact of future ‘climate-related events’ on their performance and on the performance of their entire value chain—and nearly triple the cost of being a publicly traded company, the SEC estimates.”
“Some of the ‘deep flaws’ in Mr. Gensler’s agenda are so glaring that even Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin and Rep. Bill Foster are raising concerns,” he concluded. “But Democrats’ party allegiance limits how much pushback we can expect from this Congress.
“The economy is in a recession, and stagflation may be around the corner. If Republicans take control in January, they should break Mr. Gensler’s death grip on our financial system.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of 401(k) Specialist and Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots. Experienced financial services content executive specializing in creative new media delivery. He joined the American Retirement Association in 2023 as Chief Content Officer, overseeing communications for the organization, as well as its sister organizations.