A press release from NASDAQ Tuesday morning indicated plans for the stock exchange to require companies to have a "diverse board of directors" to be listed with the stock giant.
These diversity requirements are similar to ones you see put into law in California, requiring women and/or LGBTQ+ individuals to compose a portion of a company's board. NASDAQ is not going to require a state mandate. Instead, they want to use market forces to convince companies to "Go Woke."
NASDAQ proposes:
"[T]he rules would require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have, or explain why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+. Foreign companies and smaller reporting companies would have additional flexibility in satisfying this requirement with two female directors."
Each board of directors would be required to have two minorities and this must include: one woman, and a racial minority or LGBTQ+.
If they do not comply, NASDAQ will REMOVE THE COMPANY FROM THE STOCK EXCHANGE.
To achieve this "diversity goal" NASDAQ would have to know more about the makeup of the companies than the law requires. So, according to the New York Times Dealbook, the stock exchange is putting pressure on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) to force companies to disclose the makeup of their boards of directors.
"The ideal outcome would be for the S.E.C. to take a role here," Adena Friedman, Nasdaq's C.E.O., told DealBook. "They could actually apply it to public and private companies because they oversee the private equity industry as well."
It would be the first time a major stock exchange demanded more disclosure than the law requires, which Ms. Friedman described as "an unusual step." It raises questions about whether exchanges could use their listing rules to force action on other hot-button issues, like climate change.
What a comforting thought, powerful stock exchanges partnering with and pressuring governmental agencies to force private and public corporations to adhere to certain woke political values.
This isn't scary at all.
Normally, this is proprietary information that businesses are not required to share. NASDAQ wants to partner with the S.E.C. to force corporations to disclose this information to NASDAQ so they can, essentially, blackmail companies into complying with certain political goals.
The New York Times is already thinking a few steps ahead, hypothesizing that this could also be used "to force action on other hot-button issues, like climate change."
Oh, joy.
I cannot wait until we get powerful organizations like NASDAQ to tell us "If you are a climate denier we will absolutely destroy your business and livelihood because we care about the planet and you are an anti-science loser."
This policy is not in place yet, but the request has been made to the S.E.C. It will be very interesting to see if the S.E.C. caves to this woke mob or stands by their duty to uphold the law as written.
