As you undoubtedly have heard, or will hear, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts via via its Secretary of State, William Galvin, filed a lawsuit against the SEC on Friday to block the implementation of SEC Final Rules implementing Regulation A+. .
Though this was neither unforeseen nor unforeseeable, it strikes a major blow to the heart of small business capital formation.
The ensuing battle will be fought on many fronts – with much more powerful forces allied against small business than for. Even in Congress the consumer’s consumer advocate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, reported to be the sub rosa ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, hails from the Great Commonwealth of Massachusetts. So there will be no prisoners taken in this battle.
I say it is time to take the “ass”(es) out of Massachusetts – and take the fight to Washington, D.C.
It took Congress 16 years to pass legislation (NSMIA) to block a repeat of one of the more visible faux pas of Massachusetts’ all knowing Chief Securities Administrator, barring ordinary retail investors from purchasing the stock of Apple Computer in its initial IPO in 1980. Our small businesses and job creators can ill afford to wait any longer for the promises of the JOBS Act of 2012 to be realized, most notably Title III (crowdfunding) and Title IV (Regulation A+).
For more on this development, see my article today in CrowdfundInsider.
Update: It is now publicly reported that the State of Montana has joined in the lawsuit instituted by Massachusetts. http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2015/05/26/massachusetts-montana-sue-sec-over-jobs-act
