Gary Gensler, a former financial regulator, and Goldman Sachs banker, now at MIT, is rumored Biden’s choice to head the SEC. As head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), he helped uncover interest-rate rigging on Libor, which underpins $300T in loans. Banks had to cough up $9B in fines. He pushed for transparency around derivative trading and […]
Conservative TV and Corporate Social Responsibility. Again, public opinion is the driver. A 2017 Pew Research Center study found that 37% of Americans get their news from local television news. Only 28% get their news from cable TV, while 26% tune into network news. Sinclair Broadcasting expands by acquiring those trusted local TV stations and […]
Money and Politics Get a Divorce. That would be a nice headline. It has been more than ten years since the US Supreme Court held that corporations could spend unlimited funds on election campaigns in their decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Money and Politics Get a Divorce: Still Waiting Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion […]
Gadfly importance to democratic corporate governance is often underrated. We are currently under attack by the Business Roundtable (BRT) and others seeking to substantially raise the ownership threshold for submitting and resubmitting proposals. BRT, for example, contends proposals from small shareholder divert “significant time and resources to issues that, at best, have an attenuated connection to the […]
Speak Your Mind, Lose Your Job: The Challenge of Diversity at the Modern Corporations. That was the topic of another great program at Stanford Law sponsored by the Rock Center for Corporate Governance on December 5th. @StanfordLaw @StanfordRock Register for upcoming events. What is the Board’s role in allow employees to say #TimesUp #MeToo or #TakeAKnee? (more…)
The Trump Jump The Center for Political Accountability reported today on a Trump Jump. Mutual funds support for the CPA’s corporate political disclosure resolution jumped significantly in the first year of the Trump presidency. In 2017, support increased to 48% from 43% in 2016, according to an analysis by Fund Votes. The analysis also found that abstentions decreased […]
This year’s ICGN event in Boston was a real treasure, beginning with the panel on Political Lobbying Donations. I loved the fact that ICGN was held back to back with CII at the same hotel. I took a few notes at the conference and will share some of them with readers. I’m not a very fast […]
A new study finds that while nearly 80 percent of S&P 500 companies have disclosed direct political campaign spending policies, 86 percent have no disclosed policies regarding indirect political expenditures. Additionally, only 20 percent of corporations disclose how much is actually spent and which organizations or causes receive the funds. Key research findings include: Nearly […]
The Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute and Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2) will host a webinar on Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 3 PM ET to review the findings of a new study, “How Companies Influence Elections: Political Campaign Spending Patterns and Oversight at America’s Largest Companies.” Pre-register for the webinar here. The study is […]