To watch the full interview click HERE, or on the image above.
On Democrats’ premature conclusions to further regulate everyday investors:
“Look, for us in the House, Committee Democrats have chosen the panel they want. They’ve already chosen the conclusion—they decided that in the first hearing. And their conclusion is you need a financial transaction tax, you need more regulation, you need a slower market, you need less risk taking, you need more generic products that are kind of boring, but those boring products don’t give you the kind of good economic results we’ve had in America over the last century. They’ve already come to their conclusion on the regulation they’re driving, the tax policy they’re driving, and that’s what we’re seeing out of the House.
“The bigger question here is why do you see so much action in a few stocks? And I think it’s because we’ve narrowed out the investment opportunities that people are allowed to participate in, and we have greater interest in average, everyday investors in playing in the market, being a part of the market, investing in the market. And second, not only have you narrowed out the number of stocks—we have fewer public companies to actually invest in. So I think this is kind of a multi-layered challenge before you even talk about Federal Reserve policy and fiscal policy that have contributed to people having a significant amount of ’savings’ to put at risk in the market.”
On the role of technology in investing:
“The idea that we’re going to put technology back in the box doesn’t work either. That is like saying we want to roll back the ability for people to communicate in real time. Well, you could slow it down, conceivably, you can regulate it, you can have a review, that regulators should review after the fact, but you can’t stop people from communicating, you cant stop people from talking, and you cant put technology back in the box. That’s sort of a dumb outcome no matter what party’s proposing it.”
On the proper role of government in regulating disclosures:
“People should have the power to make decisions with their own money, but buyer beware. What the government needs to be in the business of is ensuring that we have proper disclosures so that people can make proper decisions, and that those disclosures are adhered to, that you don’t have people lying in order to trick the market. But just to simply say that as the government, I want to deem people too dumb to invest their own money, I don’t think is proper, and I don’t think that will lead to better outcomes.”
Watch the full Squawk Box interview
HERE.
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