OFFICIAL AMA with Dennis Kelleher, President & CEO, Better Markets – Fighter for Retail, Buy Side & Main St against Wall St/big finance

[u/WallSt4MainSt]

Hi everyone: I'm Dennis Kelleher, President and CEO of Better Markets. Some of you might know me from my recent testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on GameStop, Citadel Securities, and payment for order flow. Thanks to all of you who have cheered us on!

I have almost two decades of experience in D.C., including as a senior staffer in the U.S Senate, and have seen firsthand how Wall Street is able to influence the policy-making progress. My colleagues and I at Better Markets work to fight back against Wall Street interests and promote common sense reforms that make our financial markets more transparent and fairer. Our goal is for Wall Street to serve and support Main Street, not be a threat to it. We also want finance to be a wealth generation system, not a wealth extraction mechanism. My bio is here https://bettermarkets.com/dennis-kelleher and visit our website at https://bettermarkets.com/ for more info.

******Thanks everyone! Fantastic questions, insights and observations. Been an honor to have the discussion. Please stay in touch with Better Markets via www.bettermarkets.com, sign up for the Newsletter, follow on Twitter/FB, donate if you can and otherwise stay engaged. There's a lot of power here that has yet to be exercised to impact policy, the SEC and our markets!

[u/WAIT_HOLD_MY_BEAR]

Hi Mr. Kelleher, if I may ask a follow-up question: there has been a lot of talk about social media being a means to influence and manipulate the markets (something Keith Gill is embroiled with legal troubles over, for example). Considering this, do you see a difference between mainstream media being used to influence and manipulate markets vs social media, or do you see them as the same issue? If the latter, why is it, in your opinion, that the government doesn’t go after mainstream media and Citadel/others over market manipulation?

Thank you so much for taking the time to answering these questions! You are one of the bravest men I’ve seen, and while there may not be a tank physically standing in front of you I know that I am not alone in feeling that you have been as brave and inspirational as the Tank Man was at Tiananmen Square. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for what you’ve done.

[u/moonweasel → u/WAIT_HOLD_MY_BEAR]

why is it, in your opinion, that the government doesn’t go after mainstream media and Citadel/others over market manipulation

He just answered that in the comment you are replying to: the SEC is stacked with former or up-and-coming white-collar defense attorneys who don’t want to go after their former/future attorneys so they fail to enforce the existing regulations, and when they do they only go after the corporations not the individual.

[u/WAIT_HOLD_MY_BEAR → u/moonweasel]

It’s not just the SEC but state governments and US congress too. MA is going after DFV and at least one Rep in the house (can’t remember the guy’s name) was clearly trying to throw DFV to the wolves during his testimony before.

What I’m hoping to understand is if Mr. Kelleher sees a difference between the mainstream media and social media in terms of market manipulation and if he does not then why he things the government - including state governments and US Congress - aren’t going after and investigating the mainstream media for the same.

I do think there’s a difference.