Impromptu Questions on the SEC ’s Climate Risk Proposal, Part 5

C. Wallace DeWittToday, let ’s wrap up our week of impromptu questions on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) climate riskrule proposal with a parade of horribles and a look forward to what might ensue if the SEC continues to pursue rulemakings of this sort.Did anyone ask other political activists?Is there a principled basis on which to distinguish valid scientific concerns over global warming from any of the panoply of troubles that beset mankind? Are we —and is the SEC—prepared to promulgate rules to address the concerns of “all whom the flood did, and fire shall o ’erthrow, / All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, / Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes / Shall behold God and never taste death’s woe”?Allow me to close this week ’s blog series with three fact patterns to consider. Cue an icy chill down the spine of the securities bar (and others with an interest in a well ‐​functioning financial system, which is everyone):It is 2025, and newly appointed Chairman Y of the Securities and Exchange Commission expresses concern over the decline of fertility rates beneath the replacement ratio, reasoning that declining populations throughout the industrialized world may well have materially adverse effects on retail and manufacturing firms. The Chairman proposes new disclosure rules on grounds that it is “important” and “significant” to “many investors and other stakeholders” to understand t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs