On February 22, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email to all federal workers asking them to send a list of 5 things they accomplished the week prior by Monday, February 24 at 11:59PM ET. The email was sent at the direction of Elon Musk, who also posted on his social media platform “X” that failure to reply to the email was considered resignation. This “no reply” language was not included in the email sent to federal workers.

The SEC closed its investigation into NFT marketplace OpenSea. The SEC has surrendered to the crypto industry.

Read Better Markets’ Fact Sheet: Having Won Almost 100% of Its Cases Against the Crypto Industry, the SEC Baselessly Surrenders

Fewer people to supervise banks (now and in the future) will directly lead to a banking system that is weaker and less safe. A shortage of trained and experienced examiners was found to be a key cause of the 2023 bank failures.

New CFPB leadership continues its trend of dismissing prior CFPB enforcement actions against alleged corporate wrongdoers—this time against Solo Funds, a nonbank financial tech company that allegedly operated a digital lending platform that used dark patterns to trick people into paying fees in the form of “tips” and “donations.”

Consolidating banking regulatory agencies under Treasury is bad for several reasons, outlined in this statement. The proposed merger would reduce transparency, oversight, and accountability for the American people while overly politicizing bank regulation and supervision.

Read Better Markets’ statement here.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission terminated about a dozen probationary employees. The employees include attorneys in the agency’s enforcement and market oversight divisions.

The CFTC is already severely understaffed and has fired even more employees, making it even harder for the agency to police the markets.

Read Better Markets’ statement here.