Nov. 01, 2018
There is no way to know if the corporations that I have invested in are spending money to try to elect politicians who want to defund Social Security and Medicare, stymie progress on health care reform or further deregulate Wall Street. There is often no insight into their gender equity policies, decisions on climate change and how they treat their workers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should require corporate managers to be honest with their shareholders about how they are planning for the long term. Shareholders have a right to know if oil executives are trying to buy off politicians to slow progress on addressing climate change. They also have a right to know whether the company is cultivating diversity on its board or moving profits abroad to avoid paying taxes in the U.S. These are just a few examples of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks that the SEC should require public companies to disclose to their shareholders and the public. Thank you for considering my comment. Kenneth Clark