Читать книгу CryptoDad - J. Christopher Giancarlo - Страница 30

Over the next several years, the CFTC under Chairman Gary Gensler set about rapidly implementing Dodd–Frank's swaps mandates. In January 2013, CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers, a Republican, announced her intention to leave the agency. Not long after, I was contacted by staff for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asking if I was interested in being recommended to the Obama administration to replace Sommers. After a lot of thought and discussion with Regina, I said yes.

The 14 years I spent with GFI were some of the most satisfying years of my life. I owed a great deal to Mickey Gooch, Colin Heffron, and so many great GFI colleagues. I also owed a lot to my WMBAA colleagues for the work that got me noticed and considered for service at the CFTC. And, of course, I owed everything to Regina, who once again gave her blessing to a new and unanticipated adventure.

As I said goodbye to GFI, my business colleagues held a rousing going-away party for me at my favorite Wall Street restaurant, Delmonico's.⁶ At one point, I left the party to go to the men's room. As I passed through the bar, a young man came up to me to wish me well. He said, “You probably don't remember me, but I was the guy dancing on the corner 14 years ago.” I asked what he was doing now. He said he was the number two guy on JPMorgan's fixed income trading desk in North America. Clearly, he had learned his lessons well.

In August 2013, President Obama announced my nomination. The following March, I testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee alongside fellow CFTC nominees Tim Massad and Sharon Bowen. After Senate confirmation, I was sworn in on June 24, 2014, by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in a moving ceremony in the House Agriculture Committee Hearing Room overlooking the Capitol. In addition to many friends and family members, the attendees included Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, Congressmen Mike Conaway and Scott Garrett, and my new colleagues, CFTC Chairman Massad and Commissioner Bowen.

I began by thanking Justice Thomas and the other distinguished guests. I then thanked my mother and father and three brothers—all gathered for the first time in decades and, as it turned out, for the last time ever. I thanked Regina for her love and support and the gift of our three children, Emma, Luke, and Henry.

I then said:

“Today is indeed an honor for me and my family. What a thrill for a guy from New Jersey to be nominated by the President of the United States, to be confirmed unanimously by the US Senate, to be welcomed today by leaders of the House of Representatives and to be sworn in by an esteemed member of the US Supreme Court. “Wow! What a country!” And what an honor.

“As I said in my confirmation hearing, I come from a line of doctors, nurses, and business entrepreneurs, simple immigrants almost a century ago. My grandparents and great grandparents would beam with pride if they were here with us.

“And yet, they would not be surprised. Instead, they may have found it thrilling along with all the other amazing aspects of this wonderful country. A country where extraordinary things happen quite ordinarily.”

That day the sun was indeed “… shining down . . .” on a new road. I had been given the opportunity to travel that road on the merits of my knowledge and expertise, not because of party or personal loyalty. I had no other Washington ambitions other than to serve five years for my country and make a good showing of myself. I had no partisan political agenda to fulfill. I owed no one, and no one owned me.

So, here I was, once again, embarking down a new section of highway, twisting and unwinding, far from where I started. It passed through that intersection of law, markets, and technology that consistently remained the course of my career. And soon I would feel the powerful tailwinds of the Internet of Value and see the dawning rays of cryptocurrencies.