Gary Gensler is everywhere. Historically, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission hasn’t been a household name—at least since Joseph Kennedy became the first head of the agency in the 1930s—but Gensler has bucked the trend. He’s a fixture on TV and social media, doling out cheeky warnings about crypto investing and Kim Kardashian, and testifying in front of Congress about artificial intelligence.
For the latest issue of Fortune, Jeff John Roberts and I delved into a figure who has become one of the most influential shapers of financial policy in D.C. We spoke with dozens of financial experts and Gensler’s associates from his time in government, as well as Gensler himself, to understand how the former Goldman Sachs banker rose to become the most divisive chair of the SEC in decades, remaking the agency into a crypto nemesis and climate warrior.
We uncovered staff burnout from an aggressive campaign of rulemaking and enforcement actions, as well as an escalating turf war with other federal regulators that’s produced little clarity for those in the crypto industry. Gensler’s biggest challenge, however, will be whether a judiciary creeping to the right will strike down his expansive vision—and the administrative state as we know it.
You can read the full story here. |
