Subject: File No. 4-637
From: John Fordham

February 2, 2013

Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:

NOTE: I added an important customizing paragraph just before the end of this message.

It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
 
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.

Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.

The shareholders are the OWNERS of the corporation - which makes concealing how their money is being applied unethical & immoral, if not blatantly illegal. After all, without such disclosure, what assurance can they have that their money (repeat, THEIR money) is not being used to harm the corporation's interests; i.e., being applied in a way which could diminish their stock profits, or result in the loss of their invested value entirely?

Thank you for considering my comment.

 

Sincerely,

John Fordham