Shareholder Rights, EPA Censorship and Honduran Democracy
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the “Shareholder Bill of Rights.”
The Environmental Protection Agency censors an inconvenient study on global warming by career analyst Alan Carlin.
President Obama condemns the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office.
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1. BUSINESS
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the “Shareholder Bill of Rights.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on why the legislation is a bad idea:
“The so-called ‘Shareholder Bill of Rights,’ recently introduced in the Senate, would impose a one-size-fits-all regime on public companies that would limit choices for shareholders, reduce corporate performance and allow political agendas of pressure groups to trump the interests of ordinary investors. Most egregiously, the bill would make illegal a key feature of the corporate governance structures that have served shareholders very well at companies from Google and Microsoft to Berkshire Hathaway.”
2. SCIENCE
The Environmental Protection Agency censors an inconvenient study on global warming by career analyst Alan Carlin.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman considers whether this is the kind of change President Obama pledged to bring to Washington:
“In a not-so-subtle dig at the supposed scientific backwardness of his predecessor four months ago, President Obama said that science is ‘about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.’ Now we learn that his administration has done just that by silencing Mr. Carlin’s voice at the Environmental Protection Agency. Is this the change we were promised? Members of Congress are suitably outraged. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), cited the report on the floor of the House of Representatives last Friday. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) told Fox News that he intends to investigate the matter further.”
3. INTERNATIONAL
President Obama condemns the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from office.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on why the removal of former President Zelaya was not a coup:
“Obama is quite wrong to claim that the removal of Zelaya was ‘illegal.’ The Honduran president forfeited his right to rule under Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, which bans presidents from holding office if they even propose to alter the constitutional term limits for presidents. And the Honduran military, which acted on orders of the Honduran supreme court, expressly had the right to remove the president for seeking to alter the constitutional term limit, under Article 272 of the Honduran Constitution, as even left-leaning commentators have now admitted. The Honduran military’s role in enforcing the court order does not make it a ‘coup’ anymore than federal troops’ role in enforcing the court-ordered integration of the Little Rock public schools in 1957 constituted a military occupation or takeover.”
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