securities and exchange commission chair mary jo white, who will be stepping down in january, deserves the praise you give her in <u+201c> mary jo white packs up <u+201d> (nov. 16) for resisting politicization of the commission and thereby earning the ire of sen. elizabeth warren. ms. white understood that the sec was representing and protecting the interests of investors, not progressive politicians trying to muzzle corporate political speech via financial disclosure and intimidation. sen. warren<u+2019>s enmity probably meant that ms. white would have been pressured to leave the sec in 2017 regardless of who won the election. an amusing footnote to ms. white<u+2019>s stepping-down announcement is that sen. warren appears to be stepping up her efforts to influence president-elect donald trump <u+2019>s nominees for top financial posts. the journal<u+2019>s same-day <u+201c>warren cautions against wall street<u+201d> (u.s. news) reports that sen. warren already has warned mr. trump in a letter that members of his transition team with ties to wall street would be unacceptable candidates for top financial positions in his administration. president obama felt it was necessary to publicly remind sen. john mccain during the obamacare debate in 2010 that the election was over. perhaps mr. trump needs to convey a similar message to sen. warren. mary jo white<u+2019>s successor should in no way pass muster with sen. warren; and a testament to ms. white<u+2019>s professionalism and independence is that she wouldn<u+2019>t be a bad choice as her own successor<u+2014>in a republican or a democratic administration. scott pierce hendersonville, n.c. while much of the focus has been on her enforcement record, ms. white also deserves praise for her capital-markets reform track record of removing outdated barriers to capital formation by startups and emerging companies, most notably through jobs act rule-making. the sec under chair white<u+2019>s direction did an admirable job of taking very prescriptive jobs act provisions and making them more workable where possible. on title iii crowdfunding, for example, the final rules exempted first time crowdfunding issuers from the audit requirement for offerings above $500,000, and allowed funding portals to curate offerings based on subjective criteria and to be compensated in the form of issuer equity, thus giving juice to a nascent funding portal industry. pre-emption of state merit review for tier ii regulation a offerings, despite fierce opposition from state regulators, is another example. ms. white should be fondly remembered as a capital markets reformer. alon y. kapen new york
outgoing sec chair white will be missed - wsj
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