Jan. 13, 2024
To those at the SEC: I am urging the SEC to NOT allow the NYSE to list “Natural Asset Companies” or NACs, pursuant to File No. SR-NYSE-2023-09. Free markets require some ground rules, which cannot and must not be manipulated to keep the playing feel level and fair and to engender positive outcomes. The continued efforts to financialize productive natural resources to subvert the legal system, to pervert the capital markets, and to cause harmful outcomes for both investors and the US alike cannot be enabled. NACs seek to use others’ money, including that obtained via the capital markets, to buy the ability to control or “manage” productive public and private land and other natural resources. Their stated purpose in doing so is not to make a profit or to be productive, but rather to protect, conserve, restore and preserve these natural “assets”, based on whatever their own definitions of those activities are. The focus on the SEC is protecting investors. NACs allow investor money to be used to decommission resources and make them non-productive for political means. The SEC cannot allow that to happen. The SEC is supposed to be a counterbalance to make sure the markets are free and fair for everyone and have the interests of all investors at heart. Do the right thing, and do not allow NACs to access our capital markets via NYSE listings or otherwise. Thank you, Stephen Sent from a branch on the vine.