COMFORTABLE IN THE HOT SEAT

Relentless, ambitious, and media-savvy, the former Goldman Sachs banker has become an unlikely hero among critics of Wall Street. But the SEC chair’s over-the-top intensity could set him up for a fall—and undermine the very investor protections he’s fighting for.

- LEO SCHWARTZ AND JEFF JOHN ROBERTS

THE SEC'S COMBATIVE GARY GENSLER

THE TWO-MINUTE VIDEO CLIP has a low-budget, jittery feel. Quick, clumsy transitions tee up self-consciously cheesy reenactments. The vibe is high school AV club - except for the clip's narrator. He looks like a stock photo of a bureaucrat, in a dark gray suit jacket and blue dress shirt. His wide-set eyes never look away from the camera; his hands never stop gesticulating.

The man is the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as elevator music swells, a title screen reveals this to be another edition of "Office Hours With Gary Gensler." Normally, these short videos are upbeat explainers on topics from SPACs to offshore shell companies. But this is a special edition about the perils of celebrity-sponsored investment products. (Short summary: Be careful!)

Gensler shared the episode with his 250,000 Twitter followers on Oct. 3, 2022, and it was particularly special because it coincided with big news: The SEC had extracted a $1.26 million settlement from Kim Kardashian, related to the actress failing to disclose that she had been paid to plug a scammy cryptocurrency token on Instagram. Published at the outset of the Monday morning news cycle, the video had the desired effect: Media outlets from CNBC to the New York Post lapped it up. The SEC and Gensler appeared everywhere.