'Fun' is not a word most associate with futures and derivatives regulation. The very idea conjures up visions of government suits with dark glasses and top-secret briefcases, or of pasty-faced nerds aglow with the illumination of multiple computer screens, as they pore over millions of trades in hopes of finding one may have the taint of manipulation or fraud.
Enter Bart Chilton, who the mainstream press has at times dubbed -- in what may be the understatement of the year -- "outspoken." He's not what one pictures when imagining the typical futures regulator. He sports his hair defiantly longish and wears western boots to commission meetings. And he is certainly notorious among the press for his famous "Chiltonisms."
He has compared the the CFTC to a "faster, smoother, and more efficient" Corvette and has assured the public that the commission is more the Terminator than it is Andy Griffith. Chilton likes his movie references, warning that legislators should not be too quick to "Dial 'M' for Merger" between the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission. (However, he has not yet bitten on this reporter's suggestion that Congress needs to "send lawyers, guns, and money" to the CFTC.)
He has even acknowledged that he sometimes goes a bit overboard in the witticisms department, saying in a 2008 speech in which he compared the US regulatory structure to light and flexible bamboo, "I know, I need to get a life, but the comparison is true."
But it's not all fun and games for Chilton. He takes his job as a regulator seriously, and what may seem like glib one-offs ultimately serve to draw one's attention to important issues that do not always have easy answers.
Chilton was one of the first to question the status quo -- upsetting the proverbial apple cart, if you will -- by publicly dissenting against the agency's conclusion that swaps dealers did not have a significant impact on crude oil prices last year. He has urged Congress to give the commission the authority to prosecute criminal fraud and has bemoaned the all-too-public spat between CFTC and FERC over which agency had jurisdiction in the Amaranth case. And in December, he criticized his own agency for not taking a more aggressive stance when commodity prices last year were through the roof and called for increased regulation of over-the-counter markets.
His latest round warns of "rampant Ponzimonium" and "Ponzi-palooza" in the wake of the Madoff scandal, regaling tales of fraudsters who have purchased expensive teddy bear collections and "can you believe it -- an entire drag racing team" on their ill-gotten gains.
Right or wrong, comedian or hack, or simply jumping the shark, he's got your attention, hasn't he?
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