In 2000 Congress passed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) which, in addition to lifting the ban on single stock futures, introduced the concept of principle based regulation.
It was hugely popular but came during a different era. It was passed in a business friendly administration with a competitive threat pushing it —the London Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) was about to list single stock futures on U.S. equities— and with a much more business friendly administration about to take over.
It came amid many reforms that lifted some supposed antiquated Depression era regulations—like Glass-Steagall— and when exciting innovations were opening up a new world of derivatives trading.
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