April 3, 2024
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Biden SEC Rules Prioritize Frivolous Proxy Fights Over Workers' Best Interests
By Rick Manning
President Joe Biden’s Securities and Exchange Commission has created an ugly can of worms through its ‘universal proxy’ rule, which empowers activist investors to harm American businesses.
This rule was used by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) during Workers United’s, an SEIU affiliate’s, recent negotiations with Starbucks. Using the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a union advocacy group which an SEIU executive chairs, to file various proxy battles aimed at Starbucks leadership, the SEIU was able to secure collective bargaining agreements in exchange for making the costly proxy fight go away.
A week later, on March 5, 2024, SOC withdrew its campaign. SOC cited the progress of the Workers United in its decision not to proceed with the board fight. Their mission was accomplished—they successfully pressured a major public company using boardroom activism.
While the union activism campaign ultimately cost the SOC $1.2 million with its SEC disclosures revealing a willingness to spend as much as $3 million, the group only actually owned a total of $16,000 of Starbucks stock, a pittance considering the company’s total market capitalization of $102.03 billion.
The Biden rule worked exactly as intended, empowering an already powerful union to create havoc for the management of a company they were attempting to organize in order to force a capitulation against the companies and other shareholder’s interests.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that only 6.0 percent of private sector workers hold union membership, down from a high of 16.8 percent forty years ago.
This decline in private sector union membership poses an existential threat to unions which have been unsuccessful in tapping into the public employee sector, which makes up almost half of all organized employees.
The SEIU has for years targeted the fast food workforce for unionization as the sector has no labor history. But more importantly for the SEIU’s bottom line, the high turnover rate for employees combined with the up-front membership fee the union charges creates significantly more cash-flow than the cost of representing the members.
Ironically, Starbucks has traditionally been allied politically with SEIU in support of left-wing candidates. Yet, that alliance did not save the Seattle-based coffee house from being targeted. As a result, the company is likely to be saddled with a unionized workforce with increased costs, less ability to fire non-performing employees and aggressive competitors on seemingly every street corner.
Shareholders who own 99.999999% of the company will be surprised to discover that their investment has been fundamentally changed by a little known union front group as the marketing advantage Starbucks has maintained over the years will be collapsed in the near future due to the SEIU using the new Biden regulations to their advantage.
However, this might be a pyrrhic victory for the left, as the same mechanism can be used to drive shareholder demands for a focus on profit making rather than bowing to the whims of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mob along with the Environmental, Social and Governance warriors.
Unfortunately, the Starbucks example shows how a well-financed shareholder campaign can take advantage of the new rules to convince a corporation to effectively commit economic suicide rather than continue to spend money to fight. And that is exactly what the Biden SEC intended.
Rick Manning in the President of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2024/03/25/biden_sec_rules_prioritize_frivolous_proxy_fights_over_workers_best_interests_1020583.html
Video: A 1978 Satire About Inflation That Came True
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zpWtwtF7b8
Democrats are in Panic Mode as Poll After Poll Shows Biden Losing Double Digits with Blacks
By Bill Wilson
The mainstream media is finally beginning to catch onto the fact that President Joe Biden has a serious issue with Black voters and is at risk of losing double-digits compared to 2020.
Analysis from the Washington Post recently noted the four new polls showing former President Donald Trump carving out as much as 20 percent of the Black vote in November, after earning just twelve percent in 2020.
CNN also warned this week that Biden’s reelection prospects could hinge heavily on his ability to turn out Black voters, something his campaign is struggling to address due to sinking approval ratings and a sputtering economy.
Biden and Democrats have good reason to be concerned about their prospects with Black voters in November. Polling data from YouGov, Quinnipiac, New York Times/Siena and Marquette all reveal Biden is in deep trouble with Black voters and will need to combat deeply negative sentiment to earn anything close to what he did four years ago.
Polls reveal Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation are at the heart of Black voters’ frustration with Biden and Democrats. In addition, a growing share of Black Muslims and younger Blacks take issue with Biden’s stance on Israel, fueling the “Abandon Biden” movement spreading among leftists in battleground states like Minnesota and Michigan.
What the polls show is this – around a fifth of Black voters are considering withholding their votes from Biden in November and either supporting Trump or supporting a third-party option.
In addition, around ten to twenty percent of Democratic primary voters in multiple battleground states are denying Biden their support in the primaries, in an attempt to pressure Biden into demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
However, the glaring issue is the economy. Black Americans largely believe Biden’s policies have not helped them, and this sentiment has accelerated in just the past six months.
The recent New York Times/Siena College poll reveals the share of Black Americans who say Biden’s policies have “helped them personally” has plummeted a full forty-one-points since last November’s Times/Siena battleground state poll.
As of mid-March, only 21% of Black Americans say Biden’s policies have “personally helped them”, while three times as many – 62% – said Biden’s policies had personally helped them last November. This is a startling shift in perspective in less than six months.
The Times poll found Black voters say by a vast thirty-eight-point margin – 69% to 31% – that the economy is in fair or poor condition, rather than good condition.
Further, Black voters say by an overwhelming thirty-two-point margin that the economy was better in 2020 after four years of Trump’s policies than it is today. In addition, twenty-three percent of Blacks say Trump’s policies personally helped them. It’s not particularly surprising then that polls show Trump could secure twenty percent of Black voters in November, an eight-point increase compared to 2020 results.
Although Black voters switching to support Former President Trump at the margins would be a blow to Biden’s reelection prospects, Blacks going third-party is an equally alarming prospect for Democrats.
A recent Gen Forward poll revealed 17% of Black voters plan to vote for Trump in November but 20% plan to vote for someone other than Trump or Biden.
Just how serious are Black liberals and independents about denying Biden their support? It’s too early to tell if they may change their minds in November, but the growing call from younger Black liberals to “Abandon Biden” in a series of Democratic primaries does not appear to be dampening. Progressive Democrats are urging others to write “uncommitted” instead of supporting Joe Biden in several Democratic primaries in key states, serving up tens of thousands of protest votes against Biden.
In Michigan, thirteen percent of Democratic primary voters cast “uncommitted” protest votes against Biden, while in Minnesota nearly nineteen percent of voters cast ballots selecting the “uncommitted” option. Twelve percent of North Carolina voters and nine percent of Massachusetts voters withheld their support from Biden on Super Tuesday last month and voted “uncommitted” as well.
Biden’s biggest battle in November could come from younger Blacks, with survey data from the American Enterprise Institute revealing young Blacks are much less likely to support Biden and identify as Democrats compared to older Blacks.
AEI’s data shows Blacks under age 50 are twenty-one percentage points less likely to approve of Biden than Blacks over age 50, thirty-six points less likely to say Biden has accomplished a good or great deal in office, and around thirty points less likely to say are Democrats.
The Biden Administration’s disastrous handling of the economy may have singlehandedly caused a reversal to the decades-long trend of Black voters supporting Democrats in just four short years. Americans for Limited Government has been warning for years that the Democratic Party’s self-serving economic policies and hollowing out of the middle class are driving away minorities and young people, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we were onto something. Whether Biden can reverse the damage he has done remains to be seen, but Black voters are abandoning Democrats in droves as it stands now.
Bill Wilson is the former president of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2024/04/democrats-are-in-panic-mode-as-poll-after-poll-shows-biden-losing-double-digits-with-blacks/
State Insurance Regulators are Launching Assault on Life Insurance and Annuities
By Bryan Bashur
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)—a multistate standard-setting organization composed of insurance regulators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories—is arbitrarily increasing regulations on life insurance companies that invest in residual tranches and interests of asset-backed securities (ABS) (e.g., investment vehicles such as collateralized loan obligations, and securitizations of auto loans, student loans, and credit cards).[1] The implementation of the proposed regulations will disincentivize life insurance companies from investing in residual ABS tranches, which could increase the cost of Americans’ life insurance and annuities. ATR is deeply concerned that the Biden Administration and unions are coercing the NAIC to deter financial companies from keeping life insurance and annuity products affordable for Americans.
Third-party data and analysis provide evidence that NAIC’s proposed regulations go too far. On March 17, 2024, the NAIC convened[2] and determined that they would open a comment period to allow the public to opine on an Oliver Wyman (OW) report that contradicts NAIC’s proposed regulations.[3] The OW report finds that common stock losses are higher than losses on residual ABS tranches. The NAIC’s proposed equity capital increase from 30 percent to 45 percent for residual ABS tranches is not commensurate with the level of residual tranche risk observed within the OW report. Meanwhile, the common stock charge is 30 percent. The OW report offers support for a 30 percent capital charge, not a 45 percent charge.
The NAIC’s proposed regulations should be delayed by at least one year. If the NAIC fails to delay the implementation of the 45 percent capital charge, then the charge should remain at 30 percent. This is more than reasonable considering the NAIC has not conducted a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis for increasing the capital charge to 45 percent. Moreover, the OW report clearly shows the NAIC’s proposed regulations are gratuitous. To date, no substantive quantitative analysis has been conducted to justify the NAIC’s proposed regulations.
Additionally, NAIC’s proposed rules should not be implemented simply to create parity with federal regulators’ implementation of the Basel III Endgame bank capital requirements.[4] These bank rules were originally formed by unelected bureaucrats in Basel, Switzerland. The NAIC should not implement rules for life insurance companies that will align with heavy-handed European-based regulations.
The NAIC should not arbitrarily and capriciously increase the capital charge for residual ABS tranches without a proper quantitative analysis. Since insurance is primarily regulated at the state level, state regulators wield significant power over the insurance industry. Although the NAIC is not subject to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA),[5] as a matter of proper due process, the NAIC should consider abiding by the APA’s principles and allow for a structured notice-and-comment process that considers and analyzes hard data. Today, the NAIC possesses no hard evidence to suggest that raising the capital charge for residuals to 45 percent would provide any material benefits to life insurance companies or their clients.
NAIC’s proposed regulations will force annuity providers to hold significantly more cash on hand. Essentially, this will raise costs for consumers acting as a hidden tax increase. This is especially harmful to Americans considering the guaranteed lifetime income that annuities provide.[6] Unions and the Biden Administration are pursuing these burdensome regulations to make alternatives to bloated pension plans more expensive. Democrats and unions know that a shift to defined contribution (DC) plans will significantly degrade their abilities to use shareholder activism to pursue left-wing political aims through defined benefit (DB) plans.
The hospitality union UNITE HERE is currently pressuring pension funds to avoid annuity products offered by insurance companies that are backed by private equity.[7] Unions are also suing[8] public companies for trying to switch to DC plans that offer annuity options through private equity-backed insurance companies.[9] One reason for this is clear: left-wing activists rely on union-controlled DB plans to force private companies to comply with their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda.[10]
The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), Federal Insurance Office (FIO), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are also pressuring NAIC to pursue these heavy-handed regulations. The FSOC[11] and IMF[12] both published reports highlighting their concerns with private equity’s exposure to life insurance. FIO, which is housed within the U.S. Treasury Department, is working with NAIC to collect climate risk data from insurers.[13] The FSOC[14] is run by President Biden’s Treasury Secretary and is composed of President Biden’s financial regulators. Additionally, the U.S. representative on the IMF’s Executive Board is a Biden nominee.[15]
The U.S. Department of Labor, which governs private employer-sponsored DC plans, is also making it harder for private companies to shift to a DC plan.[16]
Liberal Biden officials, such as FIO Director Steven Seitz, are colluding with global regulators to promote their global agenda.[17] Republican insurance commissioners should not use liberals’ talking points to increase burdensome regulations when there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the regulations are commensurate with the observed investment risks.
The assault on life insurance and annuities is a product of partisan politics. Democrats and unions should not be allowed to hijack the NAIC to empower themselves and hinder Americans’ ability to protect their families.
To view online: https://www.atr.org/state-insurance-regulators-are-launching-assault-on-life-insurance-and-annuities/