Tag: Professor John C. Coffee

Profs share predictions for securities regulation under next Administration—and their response

In this post on the CLS Blue Sky Blog, two leading authorities on securities law, Professors John C. Coffee, Jr. and Joel Seligman, take a crack at prognosticating about SEC regulation—and even the SEC itself—under the next Administration.  They contend that, with a new  Republican majority on the Commission, including the new Chair, together with Republican majorities in Congress, the SEC will be in a position to “revise a broad range of statutory, rule, and enforcement policies of the Commission.”  What’s more, the new Department of Government Efficiency—which they suggest, may not be entirely, um, open-minded when it comes to the SEC—could certainly put a major crimp in the resources available for the SEC’s budget. (They note the irony “that the SEC makes a large profit for the U.S. government, and in fiscal 2024, it obtained a record-high level of fines and sanctions (approximately $8.2 billion). Shrink its budget and you likely shrink that recovery.”) In their view, the SEC is “probably the most successful and effective of the New Deal administrative agencies, one that has helped preserve the integrity of our capitalist system,” but they fear that it may be handicapped in continuing to do so under the next Administration. With that in mind, they pre-announce their intent to “encourage a more informed debate by forming a ‘Shadow SEC,’ composed of acknowledged experts in securities regulation.”  Let’s look at some of the potential legislation and rulemaking changes that they speculate might be in store for the SEC and public company disclosure.