Make Markets Opaque Again: The SEC’s IPO Fixation Could Cost Investors Trillions

The SEC is dismantling mandatory disclosure to generate a few more IPOs. Three live experiments — the UK, Australia, and the US SPAC boom — and basic arithmetic suggest the trade destroys far more value than it creates. “Make IPOs Great Again.” That has become the organizing slogan of the SEC’s current deregulatory agenda. Chair Paul Atkins has invoked it to justify a May 2026 proposal to make quarterly reporting optional for all public companies, weakening the Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A) section of proxy statements, rolling back Pay Versus Performance disclosures, and collapsing the filing categories that separate large…