No New Year Resolutions? SEC proposes curbing shareholder power

[marmar]

from In These Times:



No New Year Resolutions?
SEC proposes curbing shareholder power
By Kari Lydersen



The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed changes that could prevent many shareholders from raising issues of social and environmental corporate responsibility.

Over the past few decades, shareholder resolutions have played a significant role in persuading major companies to improve their labor, environmental and corporate governance practices.

In 2004, Coca-Cola executives backed a shareholder resolution that led the company to invest in HIV prevention in Africa. The measure passed with flying colors.

Over the past 15 years, a series of shareholder resolutions have helped force Nike to monitor labor conditions in its international supply chain. And shareholder resolutions have persuaded corporations, including Tyco and American Electric Power, to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

But the SEC has proposed curbing these non-binding shareholder resolutions after a Sept. 2006 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District in New York spurred the agency to clarify a rule on whether shareholders can pass resolutions to nominate a person for a company’s board of directors. As a result of the court’s decision, the SEC drafted two proposals. The first would prevent such nominations. The second would allow them—but only with extensive restrictions. In the document explaining these proposals, SEC commissioners also discussed changing the way with which shareholder resolutions are dealt. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3448/no_new_year_resolutions/

[flashl]

1. How the heck did SEC suddenly get a clue about what Wall Street need?

GAO says SEC not using all its arsenal

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is not using all of its available tools to police Wall Street, according to a U.S. government study.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office indicates that the SEC declines to use internal audits conducted by U.S. stock and options exchanges.

You could hear crickets when the subprime mess first surfaced.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. It's easy. Class A stock for the real people -- the corporate entities themselves.

Class F stock for the secondary persons (shareholders) -- who may or may not receive a dividend, but will definitely have no power to vote. Jeebus, why didn't we do this back when the Fed was created?




:sarcasm: