Defending “rapacious deregulation” (Barron’s op-ed) + Council for Transformative Enterprise

It’s Time to Unleash the Public Markets

Amar Bhidé

Jan 02, 2026, 10:07 am EST

Here is a new Barron’s op-ed endorsing the SEC’s “rapacious deregulatory zeal.” Lest you think me a MAGA fanatic, my previous op-ed attacked the lawlessness of Trump’s tariffs. John Authers approvingly remembers my 2010 book arguing for tough banking rules as  “straightforward polemic.” 

Free-thinking, open-minded discourse is also at the heart of a “Council for Transformative Enterprise” that some colleagues and I are promoting. We are inspired by Ned Phelps’s now defunct Center on Capitalism and Society. (A couple of us were founding members of the Center and I started and edited its eponymous journal.)  However, our renewal project emphasizes progress in Science, Technology and Art, more strongly. Its aims also align closely with my course on transformative medical advances.

Here’s a one-page summary. If you would like to help organize the Council and participate in its activities, please email me.

And if anyone would consider a “naming” gift–or housing it in an existing Foundation – and shaping its mission  we’d be immensely grateful.

Wishing you all a happy new year! The world was less awful in 2025 than in 2024. May it continue this trajectory.