Can the SEC stand up to the richest man on the planet?

[slifin]

Again not the richest man in the world

Forbes publishes the "rich list" but it explicitly excludes royal families, oligarchs and many other sources of wealth/power

[AbrahamParangi]

Also, the smart money doesn’t let Forbes (or anyone else really) know.

[sureglymop]

What difference does it make here?

[iancmceachern]

Is there a list that includes those folks?

[iancmceachern]

There has been this whole ongoing debate over the last few years as to of we've transitioned from a democratic society to an autocratic one ruled by the rich like Musk, etc.

It's interesting to me to think back to my history lessons and all the big industrial revolution companies, and their downfall. There was a time where nearly all the steel in the US and a large part of the world was controlled by one man. From the coal to the iron ore to the rail cars. Same with meat, same with so many other things.

At that time it would have seemed impossible to unseat those unbelievably powerful and rich men and companies would be taken down I the way they were.

Perhaps we're about to live through a similar time in history.

[rayiner]

“Can an arm of the world’s most powerful government stand up to an individual whose lifetime net worth is what that government spends in a few months?”

Yes, NPR.

[loeg]

It sure seems like they ought to be able to, yeah. But they've been pretty spineless about Musk's repeated violations. And their actual enforcement power is pretty weak relative to Musk's wealth, which is the criticism the headline is making.

[kwonkicker]

Looks like SEC had it's priorities straight. They did great job on punishing senators for getting rich on insider informations. Heroes i say

[paulryanrogers]

Is this sarcasm? I haven't followed the Senate closely

[umrashrf]

Work hard in America just for a day to get it seized. That’s what America has become.

[toomuchtodo]

No one becomes a billionaire through solely their own hard work, but by capturing the value of hard work of others at scale.

[EddieDante]

He's only a man. Just seize his assets under civil forfeiture laws.

[klyrs]

Well that's one way to get civil forfeiture reform to happen sooner than later...

[Overtonwindow]

Can one of the richest men in the world stand up to the SEC?

[sieabahlpark]

The SEC is a weak organization that can barely figure out the issues that surround shorting non-existent shares. Whatever "justice" seething liberals think would happen from a fine is literally cheaper than him paying the $1b backout fee.

I swear the amount of useless drivel that goes around in a "journalists" head is fever dreams. Elon is apparently the equivalent of Satan and his purchase of Twitter is the "end of democracy" when Trump being president was the "end of democracy". Any speculation or forcing of various branches of government to stop the purchase of Twitter is just petty and begs the question just how valuable Twitter is to the political left.

[nojito]

Definitely not. The SEC is grossly underfunded.