John Malkovich has spent decades making a career out of unpredictability—playing characters who exist in the strange margins of human behavior, speaking words written for them by playwrights and novelists, disappearing into roles that are never quite fully one thing or another. For this reason, there is something deeply fitting about the news that he has decided to withdraw from a scheduled performance of “The Music Critic” in Tel Aviv, Israel, not because of politics or security or even the familiar pressures of a contentious cultural boycott, but because someone else tried to put words into his mouth and he…

Think about how many times you’ve made a decision based on a first impression. In online finance, that first impression is often a website, a logo, a document, or a name that sounds official. The SEC just charged 38 entities for allegedly exploiting that exact instinct. According to the SEC, these entities used false filings to make themselves appear legitimate as registered investment advisers. In other words, they didn’t necessarily hack into a system or steal money in a dramatic way. They did something quieter and arguably more dangerous: they created misleading public records or registration impressions. The goal was…