Turning public companies into private companies: the SEC's retreat from transparency and accountability | Fortune
Briefly

Turning public companies into private companies: the SEC's retreat from transparency and accountability | Fortune
"He framed it as a plan to "make IPOs great again," but beneath the rhetoric lies something far more consequential: a shift toward a marketplace where public companies behave like private ones - shielded from disclosure, insulated from shareholder input, and increasingly detached from the long-term health of the broader economy. In essence, it is a move toward absolute control by CEOs and their boards of directors, with little to no accountability to shareholders or regulators."
"rolling back disclosure requirements, "de-politicizing" shareholder meetings, and significantly curtailing securities litigation. Each of these changes, taken individually, merits serious debate. Taken together, they represent a dramatic shrinking of the public market's core accountability mechanisms, which made the U.S. the financial capital of the world. This new plan would hollow out the very structures that distinguish public ownership from private capital."
A proposed plan would redefine public-company status by narrowing disclosure, insulating management from shareholder influence, and limiting securities litigation. The plan's three pillars—reducing disclosure requirements, 'de-politicizing' shareholder meetings, and curtailing lawsuits—would collectively remove core accountability mechanisms in U.S. public markets. Reduced disclosure would weaken investors' ability to assess risks, governance, stakeholder treatment, and long-term value creation. Limiting shareholder engagement and legal recourse would concentrate control with CEOs and boards and diminish oversight by investors and regulators. The changes would erode structures established since 1934 that protect investors, market integrity, and the public interest.
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