Courtesy of Pam Martens
Gary Gensler
It was a bone-chilling 42 degrees with winds gusting to 28 miles per hour when Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20. Today is Biden’s 69th day in office. Washington D.C.’s beloved Cherry Blossoms are within days of reaching their peak, and yet, Biden’s nominee to Chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, has not been confirmed by a full vote in the Senate.
Given that former President Trump’s SEC Chair, Jay Clayton, has left U.S. markets in their most perilous state since 1929, one would think that the Senate would be rushing to hold a vote to confirm Gensler. (Clayton had legally represented 8 of the 10 largest Wall Street banks in the three years before Trump nominated him to become SEC Chair. Clayton left the SEC after a controversial attempt at a coup at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.)
After Gensler’s March 2 confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, the Committee followed up with written questions. A number of Gensler’s answers to those questions are problematic with what some Senate Republicans wanted to hear.
One unnamed questioner attempted to flush out where Gensler stands on the most rigged market structure since 1929. The question and response was as follows:
Banking Committee Question: “Can you commit to evaluate how to best promote competition between national securities exchanges, alternative trading systems (ATS) [Dark Pools], market makers, and broker-dealers engaged in internalization to benefit investors?”
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