Great critique of the SEC's climate change disclosure proposal:
The SEC has a very important but distinct mission. The agency was conceived in the spirit of Louis Brandeis’s memorable dictum: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”
The Depression-era Securities Acts directed the agency to prescribe disclosure “necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.”
The “public interest” was certainly mentioned, but it was interpreted to mean the public interest consistent with the agency’s mission of investor protection. The SEC did not seek data on the spread of infectious diseases, or on all sorts of other public concerns.
The SEC was not even an omnibus corporate policeman. It left antitrust concerns to the FTC and Department of Justice; labor issues were left to the NLRB.
The SEC’s charter was to compel disclosure of corporate information relevant to an investor, and bring enforcement against violators. This was a full-time job. Greed may not be good, but it is enduring. Markets need the policeman’s flashlight.
Go read the whole thing.
