In a recent guest blog post on CNBC, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton described the global financial markets by reference to a bowl of cereal….yes folks, a bowl of cheerios! His post, entitled, “The Cheerios Effect“, is remarkable not because it provides meaningful insights into the financial markets or sheds light on anything of interest, but because “Crazy Bart” managed to sound even more absurd than usual.
At the heart of the post is the notion that there ought to be global harmonization of regulatory regimes, which is certainly a notion I wholeheartedly support. BUT, I have to wonder how Gensler goes through every day knowing “Crazy Bart” is out there saying stuff like, “Like Cheerios, we need to stick together to get sound rules written; get them implemented; and, harmonize them across borders wherever possible.”
Personally, I think it more likely that the regulations will eat the markets alive (like one might eat Cheerios…) due to sublime complexity and added cost, but then again I havent conducted a scientific study of breakfast cereal, so what the hell do I know?
Thank you to Commissioner Chilton for providing such wonderful blog fodder (and, no, I dont think you’re actually “crazy” in the mentally ill sense, just more whacky in a Mr. Ferly Three’s Company kind of way than the average CFTC Commissioner.
And, readers, as always, please note that this post is written strictly in my personal capacity and expresses only my own views in that capacity and not the views of any other person, including without limitation any past, present or future employer. That should of course be clear from the disclaimer, but just in case you didnt take the time to read it…
The costs will be passed on to the consumers, and our bowls of cheerios will cost a lot more.
Perhaps he meant Alpha-Bits in the sense of they need to be put together in proper order, alphabetically or to spell something. Either way, yes, rather nutty.
And who votes for the officials that appoint the appointees that are clearly self adsorbed enough to say anything resembling that? Underneath the BS is poorly thought out idea of another world order of regulations. Too bad the appointees are just as obtuse as their elected (or not) masters.
The problem isn’t how crazy these nutcases are; it’s that we elected their bosses. A reasonable collection of regulations out weighs me and produces many lawsuits and very little improvement in user (of the system) satisfaction. If they worked at improving their job performance instead of their sound bytes, we might have the luxury of being bored in our smooth running worlds.
Did you ever notice that you don’t notice regulations until they are exceedlingly stupid? The rush for public attention promotes stupidity. Unfortunately, we continue to elect the folks who encourage these cereal heads.
I love me some count chocula and franken berry. If financial markets were cereal, we all know the vampire (squid) and the dodd (barney) franken berry. wash it down in a sea of milky debt. munch munch.