May 31, 2022
The Worst Job at the SEC?
There seem to be plenty of interesting and engaging jobs at the SEC, but there are two that I know for sure I’d never want. The first is the poor soul who picks up the phone at the number the SEC tells you to call when EDGAR is on the fritz, and the second is the person in charge of the SEC’s social media accounts. In fairness, the problem doesn’t appear to be all of the SEC’s social media accounts – just those on Twitter, the world’s most popular “rage-as-a-service” platform.
Any tweet, no matter how innocuous, from the SEC or any of its commissioners results in an avalanche of frothing-at-the-mouth replies from the most unhinged corners of the Internet. For instance, check out the replies to this tweet announcing the very controversial news that last week’s open meeting was about to start.
See what I mean? The typical person who shows up in the mentions seems to a crypto-meme stock enthusiast and devoted Alex Jones listener who’s convinced that Gary Gensler, Jay Clayton and Bill Hinman are corrupt acolytes of the New World Order and that they were also probably involved in the JFK assassination.
How’d you like to have to deal with this stuff every time you tweeted something? Can you imagine when this poor slob gets home from work – “How was your day, dear?” “Well, not too bad – @cryptocthulhu666 and @diamondhandsboredape only posted 12 memes of Gary Gensler in a clown suit today.” Maybe this kind of job is your cup of tea, but I’ll take a hard pass!
Oh, and it doesn’t appear to pay to court these folks. Commissioner Peirce has been viewed as a champion by many in the crypto-crowd, and she accepted the “Crypto Mom” moniker they bestowed upon her with grace & good humor. But that still didn’t stop the Internet people from creating a bunch of scam Instagram accounts under her name.
– John Jenkins