DD Support Board and Research Team

[shajandr]

Where did the changes to 506 come from politically?

Well, it was originally an Obama administration proposal. The idea came out of the Left based on non-profit crowdsourcing and "locavesting" (local investing) microfinance proposals that were most clearly enunciated by the Stanford Social Innovation Review:

http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/crowdsourcing_microfinance

and NY Times editorials:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/opinion/a-proposal-to-allow-small-private-companies-to-get-investors-online.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1317044524-UaF+xOX5/6Cbr6Y5lsDUag&;

http://www.crowdsourcing.org/editorial/forget-new-crowdfunding-legislation-why-congress-should-democratize-the-existing-laws/10208

and the Obama administration submitted it as part of its Jobs Act through a NC Republican congressman. It passed overwhelmingly with broad bipartisan support.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/112-2011/h825


Another ill-considered idea that originated from the Left, not from the penny stock scammer community.

Just wanted to make the history of where this came from clear, as some folks seem to imply that it was the scammers who militated for this bad law. It wasn't - it was empty-headed idealists who have little-to-no practical knowledge or ability to foresee the consequences of their "neato, nifty" ideas. Nonetheless, nobody in Congress had the foresight or gumption to argue against this poorly thought out law. The vote was nearly unanimous.

As the ancient aphorism says, "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

All of you who think you have great ideas on how to use regulation to reduce penny stock scamming should keep that aphorism in mind.

And the physician's credo - "first do no harm". There are fundamental reasons all centrally-planned economies fail. People are nowhere near as smart as they think they are.