Why Retail Can't Touch Private Markets

In this episode of Through the Noise, Cam Harvey unpacks one of finance's most consequential and least understood rules: who counts as a "qualified investor." In the US, the label has nothing to do with knowledge or credentials. It comes down to wealth. Cam traces the rule to the 1929 crash and the Securities Act of 1933, explains why its costly disclosure regime made sense then, and argues that it now locks ordinary people out of the highest-return investments, from SpaceX to OpenAI to Anthropic. With information cheaper and more abundant than ever, he makes the case for a lighter, intermediate tier of disclosure that would let far more investors participate early, diversify properly, and share in the companies shaping the future.