Comment Text:
You are now 5 days in to the request for comment on a very impactful initiative. You released this with great fanfare. Three of the 5 Commissioners released statements on it. It was posted to LinkedIn. It is something that SHOULD be cared about.
Maybe ask the question why has it received soo little attention at this point. This topic, at least according to one of the Commissioners, is critically important to safeguarding investors.
It's certainly possible that many investors don't really care. It's also possible that many don't believe that you'll help. And it's also possible that come the 28th there will be 1.5k comments like FTX had. It's also possible that your press office's failure to actually put the link in the press announcement hurt some initial comments, especially as the "little people" like me tend to just comment right up front while it's the rich folk and industry that take their time and build up the billables.
I doubt, btw, it would make Commissioner Romero happy to only get comments from the rich and her think tank. Certainly not a good look for the CFTC as a whole.
Another possibility, and this seems to be what Commissioner Mersinger's point is, no one believes that the CFTC listens to the public comments. You got thousands of comments on FTX and it took you forever and half to move on it. And don't sit here now and pat yourself on your back like you were some group of geniuses who saw that FTX was a fraud. Don't treat us like idiots and don't treat yourselves like idiots. You just were slow, and you also didn't care at all about what the comments said. It's pretty clear at this point that you just don't really care what people have to say on anything. (and no, I don't think Com. Romero's think tank is right that FTX is Commissioner Benham's fault.) The point is, that people in the public that have genuine ideas and belief should have input into the regulatory process. That is somethin that you SAY you all agree with. But then when you ask for comment, what do you do? Nothing.
I have an interesting challenge for the CFTC or whoever is the Inspector General. I challenge the CFTC to make a study of the last three years of times the CFTC's asked for the public's input. Be detailed and break out each request into its component part, and then also into the bottom line point that you can gauge to see what the public recommended. Then look at each issue and component part, and then the bottom line point, and see how many times the CFTC actually listened to the public's recommendation.
The CFTC seems to be a pretty data driven and data interested group. So go get some data and study the trends to see what things are like. How does the CFTC rank against the SEC? The Department of the Treasury? How many comments? When are they submitted? By who? And does the CFTC actually give a darn about the comments.
I would be very surprised if the results were that the CFTC actually listened to the comments. Asking for input has become either a check the box exercise or a total farce performed to make the people in charge feel like they care.
