Staff Cuts and Turmoil Hit the CFTC While the Crypto It Oversees Booms
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is poised to take on vast new responsibilities. Staff describe chaos, cutbacks and an atmosphere of resentment and paranoia.
Illustration: Igor Bastidas for Bloomberg Businessweek
Just down the coast from Mar-a-Lago in March, at a conference hall in Boca Raton, Florida, Caroline Pham, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, took to a neon-lit stage to give a speech commemorating the agency’s 50th anniversary
Since 1975, when futures were still mostly used by industrial companies and farmers, through the explosion of financial derivatives and the advent of cryptocurrencies, the CFTC has, with little fanfare, overseen markets that have grown to more than $500 trillion. But Pham wasn’t there to provide a polite history of the agency’s achievements.