Gary Gensler is making the SEC into a banana republic

Gary Gensler deserves a place in our country’s Banana Republic Hall of Fame as well, says Julian Zelizer .

Zelizer: The SEC chief is supposed to be Wall Street's top cop but, like DA Alvin Bragg , he has chosen to ignore real malfeasance such as the obvious pumping and dumping we’ve seen in some “meme stocks,” costing generational wealth.

Even the SEC concedes that by failing to show a single instance of traders spying on what was happening in market-making, Virtu says it didn't happen.

Now the case will likely go to court, where a judge will decide whether to allow markets to morph into banana republic status.

Most cases like this get settled; Virtu probably would have settled.