Hester Peirce: The Peanut Butter and Watermelon of Financial Surveillance 🍉🥜
Ah, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the culinary philosopher of finance! Her “Peanut Butter & Watermelon” speech-delivered on a fateful day in August 2025 at U.C. Berkeley-serves up more than just a delightful snack metaphor. It’s a feast for thought, revealing the age-old struggle between the shiny promise of disintermediated technologies and the clunky machinery of financial surveillance that insists on policing our every transaction like a nosy neighbor peeking through the curtains.


