24 December 2025

The New Deregulatory SEC

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8Insights

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take07:16

Six-Month Reporting Could Leave Ordinary Investors Behind

Leder rejects the framing of public issuers as small neighborhood businesses overwhelmed by reporting. Companies solicit capital from public investors, and extending reporting intervals to six months could disproportionately benefit sophisticated investors with alternative information channels.

Public companies voluntarily seek capital from outside investors.
Quarterly reporting can be simplified without being abandoned.
Six months is a long period for material developments to remain unclear.
Large sophisticated investors may cope better than ordinary shareholders.

“These are publicly traded companies that have gone you know, are asking me and thousands of other investors for our for our money”
Michelle Leder · 07:30

“I think going to every six months would be really, you know, bad for investors overall.”
Michelle Leder · 08:13

#quarterly earnings#disclosure#investors#public companies

Hot Take09:05

Tesla's Pay Vote May Be a Green Light for Excessive CEO Awards

Tesla's shareholder-approved compensation package is unusual because of Elon Musk's singular public profile and the company's personality-driven following. Leder nevertheless sees it setting a precedent that other boards may invoke to justify unusually large equity grants.

Tesla is unusually tied to its chief executive's personal identity.
Shareholders overwhelmingly approved Musk's compensation.
Other companies are now awarding executives outsized equity.
A singular case can reset what boards perceive as acceptable.

“Tesla is sort of a special situation, right because it's like a cult of personality.”
Michelle Leder · 09:34

“It's almost like it's created like a green light for you know, giving away you know, additional equity.”
Michelle Leder · 10:16

#executive compensation#tesla#elon musk#equity

Hot Take12:39

Easier Crypto Access Could Put Unsophisticated Investors at Risk

Leder characterizes the current SEC's crypto posture as a complete reversal from Gary Gensler's enforcement-oriented approach. She is particularly concerned about policies that make crypto easier to access for investors who may not understand its risks.

The current approach sharply reverses the prior SEC's position.
The agency is pursuing regulatory combinations intended to ease crypto activity.
Broader access does not guarantee adequate investor understanding.
Retail and older investors may be especially vulnerable.

“the current SEC is basically, you know, a one to eighty degree turn from that”
Michelle Leder · 13:04

“anything that makes it easier for people to get into crypto, especially less sophisticated investors, is problematic for me”
Michelle Leder · 13:29

#crypto#retail investors#sec#investor protection

Explainer· 4

Explainer01:21

Why SEC Enforcement Is Falling Without the Laws Changing

The foundational securities laws remain in place, but enforcement activity has weakened amid significant staffing losses. Leder says both case volume and settlement size indicate a less active regulator, reinforced by the dismissal of prominent cases.

The basic securities statutes have not changed.
Reported SEC staffing has fallen by roughly 20 percent.
Enforcement can weaken even when formal rules remain intact.
Case dismissals reinforce the broader deregulatory direction.

“It's the enforcement that is, you know, a bit up in the air.”
Michelle Leder · 01:29

“the SEC is just kind of sleeping. They're just not as active as they've been in the past.”
Michelle Leder · 02:02

#sec#enforcement#staffing#regulation

Explainer03:42

How Paul Atkins Is Turning the SEC Toward Crypto

Paul Atkins returns to the SEC as chairman after previously serving as a commissioner and representing crypto firms in private practice. Leder describes crypto as the agency's dominant priority and notes that the commission is operating with only one Democratic voice among four commissioners.

Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner.
His private-practice work included representing crypto firms.
Crypto appears to dominate the agency's current agenda.
The commission has four members rather than its customary five.

“this is like crypto, crypto, crypto, and that's all. It seems like the SEC is really focused on”
Michelle Leder · 04:25

“there's basically only one person who is kind of like sounding the alarm on all this crypto stuff.”
Michelle Leder · 05:11

#paul atkins#crypto#sec#governance

Explainer11:37

Why Executive Compensation Clawbacks Rarely Happen

Compensation recovery efforts are more commonly associated with shareholder litigation than SEC action. Although most companies maintain clawback policies, Leder says actual recovery of executive pay remains unusual.

Plaintiff law firms frequently respond to earnings disappointments.
The SEC is less commonly the source of compensation clawbacks.
Many companies maintain formal clawback policies.
Having a policy does not mean a company will use it.

“You don't you're not really seeing that on the SEC side so much.”
Michelle Leder · 11:58

“a majority of companies do have clawback policies, but usually it's kind of rare that you know, uh, the clawback money.”
Michelle Leder · 12:04

#clawbacks#executive pay#litigation#sec

Explainer14:05

Companies Still Report Cyber Incidents Haphazardly

SEC rules introduced in 2022 require cybersecurity incidents to be disclosed in a specific section of an 8-K so investors can find them quickly. Compliance remains inconsistent, while the financial scale of a breach is often impossible to determine when the first disclosure is made.

The 2022 rules created a designated disclosure location.
Standard placement is intended to make incidents easy to find.
Many companies still disclose incidents inconsistently.
Initial estimates may not reveal whether remediation will cost thousands or hundreds of millions.

“companies are still disclosing this in haphazard ways.”
Michelle Leder · 14:31

“they don't know if it's going to be like a you know, a five you know, thousand dollars you know fix, or a five hundred…”
Michelle Leder · 14:46

#cybersecurity#8-k#disclosure#data breaches

Takeaway· 1

Takeaway10:26

When an Incentive Grant Stops Looking Like an Incentive

Leder questions a nearly ten-million-share award to an established founder-CEO whose company stock was performing poorly. Her critique distinguishes compensation for demonstrated value creation from equity awarded without a persuasive retention or performance rationale.

Long tenure can weaken the claim that a grant is needed for retention.
Poor stock performance makes a large reward harder to justify.
Executives should not require extraordinary grants merely to perform their roles.
Boards should connect equity awards to measurable value creation.

“Does this guy really need ten million shares to be incentivized?”
Michelle Leder · 10:40

“if the stock isn't doing good and you're giving away ten million shares to someone you know who's been there to incentivize them. You shouldn't…”
Michelle Leder · 11:02

#ceo pay#stock grants#corporate governance#incentives