The significance of the data is not obvious. However, by their joint letter, the investor rights advocates demonstrate that a significant number of shareholders want to maintain a liberal ability of small shareholders to put up proposals for a vote. This raises the question: if the shareholders of each issuer could vote on the rules applicable to that issue, what range of standards would be adopted by the shareholders themselves?

The proposed rule is a blunt statement by the DOL in making entirely explicit that the obligation of a plan fiduciary is to act for the benefit of plan participants, and not to spend money on any activity that does not further that goal. The proposal is not in direct contradiction of Interpretive Bulletin 2016-01, but the tone is quite different. That Interpretive Bulletin concludes that fiduciaries should not spend excessively on proxy issues that are not material, and, implicitly, that any…

In the tradition of Schumpeter, Hayek, Popper and Friedman, Commissioner Peirce is reminding people that the moral value of the capitalist system derives from producers exercising their individual freedom so as to attempt to satisfy the desires of consumers, likewise exercising their individual freedom. The alternative is the denial of that freedom through the power of the state to determine how individuals should work, and how they should shop.

Commissioner Lee has been a persistent critic of the SEC's declining to mandate disclosure, in a standardized form, as to climate change risks.

One way for her to strengthen her position would be to propose very specific suggestions as to what such standardized disclosure would look like for different types of issuers (e.g., for energy, technology, manufacturing, entertainment). There are undoubtedly groups and individuals who would assist in proposing such a standardized model.