Man Bites Dog: A Genuine Shareholder Rights Group

I've written so much about astroturf groups claiming to advance shareholder rights, but really pushing corporate interests, so it's refreshing to see the genuine article. This is a real man-bites-dog story.

SEC Chairman Chris Cox introduced retrogressive proposals last July that would cut back on shareholder rights, and make it harder to introduce shareholder resolutions. He actually introduced two proposals, one supposedly "pro-shareholder," but both are a step backward.

Cox is politically hypersensitive, so he probably thought his proposals would sail through without objection. Wrong.

A whopping 22,500 comment letters have poured in to the SEC to protest the proposals, spurred by a group called Save Shareholder Rights.

Here's a Kathy Kristof column that sums up the issues involved, and here is the group's website.

© 2007 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.



-----------

Wall Street Versus America was published by Penguin USA on April 6.
Click here for its Amazon.com listing and here for more information on the book, from my web site, gary-weiss.com.