Ed Elson

The SEC, under this administration, has very little interest in prosecuting and investigating cases of insider trading.

In fact, last year, SEC enforcement actions declined by about 30% after Trump had taken office.

It also settled only $800 million worth of cases, which is the lowest number ever in which we've seen an administration change.

And here is the kicker.

Last week, the SEC's enforcement director resigned.

Why?

Because she was reportedly clashing with her bosses over her attempts to investigate cases involving, wait for it, the Trump family.

In other words, not only have our markets been compromised, but our regulators have been compromised as well.

Criminal activity and financial fraud can now run completely unfettered because there is now no one left to punish it.

Not the SEC, not the FBI, and certainly not the president who seems to be involved in these activities, which means that there's nothing much that you or I could do here.

I mean, I can talk about it on this podcast.

I can keep looking at the markets and I can keep trying to understand what's happening here.

But beyond detecting that it happened, there is literally nothing else we can do.

And there is nothing to disincentivize this behavior.

We don't know who they are.

We don't know what they know.

We don't know who they've bribed or with whom they've spoken.

We really don't know anything.

And so, not to be overly dramatic here, but this is the moment where democracy does have to play a role.

This is the kind of thing where you actually have no choice but to use your vote.