June 13, 2013
Former SEC Commissioner Weighs In: Unburnable Assets
From Lynn Turner: This is a fascinating – and startling – presentation made recently to students at the New School University in NY. Bevis Longstreth is a former SEC Commissioner, a successful investor, and former partner of Debevoise & Plimpton. The presentation notes that if current reserves of fossil fuels held on the balance sheets of oil, gas and mining companies are burned, the world simply cannot survive the global warming as we understand it today. Yet if those reserves are not allowed to be burned, the market capitalization of these companies – currently $4 trillion – will decline 40-60% with sharp losses to investors. It poses the question, what if anything, is the SEC doing to require disclosure to investors in this regard and proper reporting of such reserves?
As noted at the end of the presentation, important material for it comes from The Carbon Tracker Initiative’s report: “Unburnable Carbon 2013: Wasted Capital and Stranded Assets.”
Who Should Actually Have Say on Pay?
This article from the Harvard Business Review is one of the best I have read on say-on-pay in terms of the “big picture”…
Google’s CEO & Disclosure of Health Issues
As noted in this Bloomberg article, Google recently revealed that its CEO Larry Page suffers from a health condition that can result in hoarse speech and labored breathing, though according to doctors won’t impede him from running the company. This disclosure was made through a blog posting. So far, I haven’t heard any complaints about Google’s disclosure (nor should there be IMHO) – unlike the fracas over the health of Apple’s Steve Jobs as noted in this blog.
Have trouble sleeping at night? According to this article, you are not alone. Bernie Madoff can’t sleep either…
– Broc Romanek